DAMD in the Rough
by Ashbringer36
Summary: Dia Sky, a lone wolf. Amethyst Perla, a vengeful ghost, Misty Blaize, an Innocent Hare and Daff Arryle a flockless bird. These four fighters each from wildly different places come together to form team Diamond. Taking shelter in the Shade against the scorching sun these four young fighters will face trials, the question is, will they stand united or fall divided?
1. 1 Wolf

**Disclaimer - RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth**

 **A/N - this character's theme song is Warrior by Disturbed**

 **#1 The Wolf**

 _The Wolf. An animal_ known _throughout the world as a fierce predator, the symbol of ferocity, and unbreakable will on the battlefield. Among these animals, there are the lone wolves, tenacious and strong enough to survive without a pack behind them. Some have gone so far as to say that there is only one true equal to the strength of a lone wolf._

Crunch was the sound in the deserts of Vacuo, crunch of sand beneath boot. This quiet sound accompanied the footsteps of one girl walking alone through the desert beneath the light of Remnant's fractured moon. This girl wore dark blue combat boots atop similarly shaded pants and a teal and ocean blue coloured metal top, clearly designed for taking a few hits. She had white hair and bright sapphire eyes, burning with determination and blowing in the light breeze. Behind her, a white wolf's tail moved ever so lightly with the wind.

Atop a small sandy hill, this girl, Dia Sky, removed a small brown backpack from her back and placed it on a large rock beside her. Walking forward several more paces, she reached both hands behind her and drew two swords from sheaths on her back. These swords, matching in detail, were a foot and a half in blade length, both with blue mechanisms in the hilts of the otherwise simplistic swords. The Regulus Fangs, two weapons that the young warrior saw as the only battle companions she needed.

She stood with swords at the ready, unflinching and unmoving. Others would have begun panicking when they began to hear the crunches coming from around them, indicating others were approaching, yet the approaching creatures were why this young warrior was out in the desert. A grin graced the Faunus' lips as she looked around to see a pack of Beowolves approaching her. With small variations in size, these wolf-like Grimm had the standard black and white body, spikes protruding from their backs and red glowing eyes.

The creatures of darkness surrounded her and yet the grin she had on her face didn't falter as she pushed herself forward with one foot and charged at the first Beowolf. The creature raised its clawed front leg and tried to slice at her but the claw met the blunt end of a sword while the other sword met throat. Decapitating the creature, it evaporated into the shadowy mist all Grim turned into when slain. There was half a second of shock amongst the creatures before more of them began to charge. The first lunged at her but in one fluent movement, she somersaulted away.

Landing on her feet, Dia flipped around and sliced the claws off of one that tried slashing at her. Using that momentum, she spun with a vicious grace and sliced at upper arm of another attacker while slicing into its neck with the other sword.

Flipping over the now evaporating claw of the slain Grimm, Dia thrust her swords forward and lunged into another that tried jumping at her. The swords pierced into where the beast's heart would be and it was vanishing before the weapons were even pulled from the wound.

There were four Grimm left, including the large alpha wolf twice the size of the other regular sized wolf like Grimm. They encircled Dia, growling viciously and eyeing her down, no doubt scanning for weakness. The wolf Faunus gave them none, her heart beat faster and faster but her mind was as clear as ever, adrenaline coursed through her and with the aid of her aura, began emanating out as an icy blue mist around her, signifying her Semblance beginning to charge.

Two of the smaller wolves charged from behind Dia, attacking at two separate angles in an attempt to catch her off guard. This tactic failed however as she flipped around and sidestepped to dodge the claws. Using the first Grimm's own momentum against it, her sword sliced through its head and neck, bringing the blade out just in time for Grimm claw to meet sword in a parried strike. Easing away from the spot where the blades locked, Dia proved she had no intention of giving any ground as she pushed right past the defences of the Grimm and embedded the blade in her right hand into the creature's neck.

The last regular Grimm of the pack charged, but a simple and swift swing of the sword brought an end to that strike.

Two wolves were left standing now, the wolf Faunus Dia Sky and the Beowolf Alpha. The Alpha was on all fours, glaring with its menacing red eyes at the young warrior in front of it. The sapphire eyes of the girl met it in kind. The alpha stripped of its pack and the lone wolf who had defeated its fellows squared off like two forces of nature, two enraged beasts fighting for their own purposes and both knowing that only one would leave the clearing alive.

The blue-clad warrior was first to break away from the stare and begin charging, a murderous glare on her face as she brought her right sword up with her left remaining in a defensive position. The sword came down, but the creature raised its claw and blocked the sword while slashing at her side with its other claw.

Her Aura negated most of the damage but the attack still sent the girl sprawling, rolling down the sandy hill and stopping on her back only to see the creature lunging at her with teeth bared. The icy blue mist that had been surrounding the girl became more vibrant as she flipped her swords. As they flipped, several mechanisms moved and the hilts shifted while the blade moved inward, revealing that they were now a set of one-handed shotguns.

Shooting upwards, once from each gun, the lunging creature was sent backwards, granting the young warrior just enough time to get to her feet. Playing conservatively with her Dust, the girl flipped the weapon back into swords and charged once more, this time jumping over the first swipe and slashing away the second. The creature lunged in one final ditch effort but using this as an opportunity, Dia flipped one sword back into a shotgun and had the barrel pointing right into the mouth of the enraged creature.

One shot rang true right into the creature's mouth, killing it instantly.

Dia Sky, the victor against the pack of Beowolves she had antagonised, leaned against the rock she had placed her pack on, reached into said pack and pulled out a flask filled with water and began taking measured sips.

 _Some have suggested a lone wolf is, in fact, stronger than an Alpha wolf. Yet despite what some might say, that is false, because however strong, however fast, however cunning a lone wolf might be, an Alpha will always have something the lone will never have._

 _Something worth fighting for!_


	2. 2 Ghost

**Disclaimer - I do not own RWBY. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth**

 **A/N - the theme of this character is The Night by Disturbed**

 **#2 Ghost**

 _Ghosts. We tell of them in stories and tales passed from generation to generation. We all know these tales, a spirit bound to our world unable to pass on for one reason or another. For some, an unfulfilled life, others a vengeance on someone who wronged them. They work from the shadows and they are feared amongst humanity._

The shattered moon was high over the streets of Vale and the lights of the city were alight with those enjoying the night life and the bustle of the lower city with people headed for one of the several night clubs. Yet above this lower city, things were silent and at the very top of one of the larger buildings, there was a girl, clad in black and dark purple combat armor. This girl stood on the ledge with a straight back, lime green eyes cold as ice, black hair with dark purple highlights adorned the girl's head along with a pair of black furred cat ears. On her wrists were two gauntlets with sleek dark colored metal and several contraptions hidden inside.

Amethyst Perla was waiting, waiting for her enemy to make the first move.

A man on the Council of Vale was currently in the large building in front of the girl and she had reason to believe someone wanted him dead.

Amethyst's eyes snapped to the building adjacent to her and sure enough, climbing through a darkened window was a man in what appeared to be black. Scowling, Amethyst reached behind her head and pulled a black hood over her head and with the other hand, pulled a black baklava over her face leaving only her purple eyes visible. She jumped from her spot on the opposite building and landed on the fire escape two levels below where the person had gone in. Running up the steps with a speed and grace only someone with experience in being unheard could pull off, Amethyst ran up the steps and pulled herself through the window her target had gone through.

Swiftly but quietly moving through the halls of the large building, Amethyst ducked behind corners and made sure to move unseen through the shadows, she might be here with good intent but she was still attempting to beat an assassin at their own game. There isn't a lot of room for debate as to intent especially with the time she would have.

It was fairly easy to know which way to go, while most of the building was filled with guards, there was a very specific path that was conveniently void of such manpower, something Amethyst knew was because if she was to open a broom closet, she'd find no less than half a dozen corpses crammed out of sight.

Speeding up at risk of being heard, Amethyst moved through at high speeds and turned a corner just in time to see two guards get knocked unconscious in front of a door and the black-clad man walk into a room they had no doubt been guarding.

Her subtlety gone, Amethyst ran straight for that door and dived right through it, urgency replacing subtlety in a quick moment, ignoring the clear fact that she was about to be spotted by a camera.

Once the door burst open from Amethyst charging in. The man who had a small knife in hand turned towards the door while a third person, a man with a short grey beard and hair awoke with a start.

The assassin glared at Amethyst for half a second before spinning around and attempting to throw his knife at the person who was no doubt the councilmen he had been sent to kill. What he did not expect was his aim to be thrown off by a burst of electric energy hitting him in the back. One of Amethyst's gauntlets, Midnight Gloom, was smoking from the underside, indicating she had just shot the lightning dust round. The assassin glared at this interloper and threw two more daggers at the girl who ducked just in time to dodge the flying weapons. Using the position of her dodge to her advantage, Amethyst leapt forward, shooting behind her to propel herself forward. Before he could draw any more daggers Amethyst was in close range and landing a powerful punch to the man's head. Landing on his back with the young vigilante on his stomach, there was no stopping two more rapid punches to the man's head, leaving him unconscious.

It was at this point however that the silent alarm began to take effect, the Councilman had hit said button the moment he awoke and now the guards were busting into the room, assault rifles in hand.

"Freeze!" One of them yelled at Amethyst angrily as no less than fifteen assault rifles aimed at her chest and head.

Despite her being innocent there was some reason behind the girl not wanting to go in. Whether it was her muteness making her seem guilty or a thought process involving staying out of anything that could compromise her ability to move freely, whatever the case, the girl's next move was very much a planned move.

She began to raise her arms in surrender and let two of the guards move forward. Next second she squeezed her eyes shut and once she had done that, a blinding flash of light came out of her very body.

The guards were blinded by the flash and several fired a few shots from their guns in shock but none of the dust pellets hit anything.

Her moment bought, Amethyst ran up to the first guard and punched him in the face followed by a spin kick to the one right next to her. One thinking he was hearing her, tried throwing a blind punch but Amethyst sidestepped, caught his arm under her and threw him over her using his own momentum.

The guard's vision was beginning to come back but another flash quickly undid that. With more time, Amethyst thrust her right arm outwards and from her gauntlets came a dagger attached to a black whip. The whip flew and stabbed into the hands of one of the guards who dropped his gun in pain before being flicked towards the face of another, leaving a minor wound along the cheek but disorienting enough to send him crashing head first into the nearby wall. Retracting the blade back into the gauntlet, the fast moving girl did one final spin kick and sent one guard flying backwards, landing on top of the final standing guard.

The only guard still conscious was the one stabbed in the hand, kneeling in a pained expression. This guard looked up just in time to see a punch coming to his face before he joined his fellows. The cat Faunus knelt down beside the guard before her and pulled a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt. Silently walking towards the fallen assassin, she knelt down and slid his shirt aside slightly, revealing that just below his neck was a black tattoo. A slashing claw surrounded by small droplets of what could only be assumed was meant to be blood.

She stared at this symbol for several long seconds with a look of sorrow on her face. Letting the clothes go back to their original place, Amethyst with her face still, a sullen wreck, placed the cuffs on the man's wrists so they were attached to his front. Once they were on, she moved her hand over his heart and looked down at him silently. A good will gesture she made before standing up and walking out. Stepping past the halls and towards the window she had come in from.

Thrusting her arm out, Amethyst sent the whip of her weapon towards the roof of the adjacent building and once the dagger at the end proved to have hooked something, she pulled herself upwards towards the other building, the rope retracting and pulling her upwards.

Looking downwards, Amethyst saw a good dozen white painted police vehicles begin pulling up. Nodding under her mask, she turned her back and with the use of her light manipulation Semblance, removed herself from visibility and allowed the spotlight to be directed elsewhere.

 _And yet there is one thing universal to all ghosts. Their ultimate goal whether they know it or not. Whether they go about it in the right way or not there is one thing they all seek._

 _To make peace with their pasts._


	3. 3 Hare

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth**

 **This character's theme is Alive by Disturbed**

 **#3 Hare**

 _The Hare. These fuzzy little critters are so often a symbol of innocence and purity of the heart. Kind and compassionate creatures who survive the wilderness with speed and cunning whilst never directly harming its fellow creatures of the wild._

The coliseum of Atlas Academy was alight with all manner of lights and abuzz with an almost deafening noise. For the crowded circular arena, had stands packed with people all cheering and talking about the match about to take place.

Down a hallway that led from the base of the stadium hearing this white noise, a girl sat on a bench in a locker room. She was alone and obviously preparing for the match. She pulled her long ginger hair into a ponytail and glared her bubble-gum coloured eyes in a determined expression as she tied the laces of her arctic colored boots. Getting to her feet she glanced down at her attire seeing a magenta and purple suit adorning her lithe 5 ft. 6 frame.

Misty Blaize, one of the two finalists in the Atlas Regional Combat Tournament reached to her hip and unsheathed her weapon, a silver saber. This sword which its wielder had christened the Dual Matrix was as sharp as ever, sharpened and polished only an hour prior.

Sheathing the sword after a few analytical twirls of the blade, Misty began walking down the hall and into the stadium.

The announcer was announcing her to the crowd but the young warrior heard none of it. The cheers of the crowd and the booming voice over the sound system in the stadium were all drowned out in her mind. Tuning out both the lights and the sound, Misty Blaize entered her own world, a world where only she and the person walking out from the other side onto the arena existed.

The man was six feet sporting steel armour and a hammer the size of his body in hand. He didn't show his face and the helmet he wore was a basic knightly design that would make many people wonder how he saw through it with such tiny slits for vision. The man was presented as Ebon Ray, the Titan, and he was a force to be reckoned with. Both young warriors were or they wouldn't be standing across from each other with a couple thousand onlookers ready to watch them see who the superior fighter was.

Ebon lightly pounded his chest and gave a slight bow to Misty, a sign of respect that the pink-clad fighter had no hesitation in returning in kind.

Then the first sound to enter the young girl's mind was made, the word from the announcer. "Begin!"

Dual Matrix in her right hand, the dark-haired girl took the offensive first, sidestepping an upward swing and landing several grazing strikes along the man's chest. Thrusting out an elbow, Ebon tried to strike the duelist only for her to duck and proceed to summersault away.

Getting back to her feet after coming to a halt Misty clutched her sword ever the tighter as she glanced upwards towards the screen above them showcasing her strikes had whittled 10% of her opponent's aura away. It was minuscule but it was worth the short amount of breath lost on her part. There was no tire in her muscles yet, for what this young duelist lacked in strength or imposing figure she made up for with stamina and grace.

The boy hoisted his hammer into two hands and swung it at Misty sending a large blast of fire dust towards her. The large blast, almost as large as Misty herself, was clearly meant to explode when it came into contact with another object. This fact is why the intended target of the blast avoided just attempting to sidestep, but instead broke out into a full-blown sprint. Feeling the air behind her move as the explosion went off just out of reach. Even as she continued her sprint, moving in a semi-circle around her opponent who continued sending more cone shaped fire dust blasts from the end of his hammer Misty flipped a mechanism in the hilt of her weapon, detaching part of the hilt and taking what was revealed to be a handgun in her left hand.

Raising her left arm, Misty began firing at her opponent with small Earth Dust rounds. The blasts each hit the man's chest but his armour took most of the hits making the rounds graze off with barely a small dent in his aura levels. Spinning faster then she could run, Ebon shot one final blast where Misty was going rather than behind and the girl couldn't stop in time, instead taking a lesser amount of the force but more than enough to send her flying backward landing on her back with a loud thud and a burst of pain that was thankfully nullified by her own Aura.

Misty's Aura was not a trait she wrote home about and thus that single explosion and subsequent landing had drained her down to 67% aura and this fact was realised by both fighters as well as the crowd who verbalized the knowledge with an almost synchronised gasp followed by cheers and whoops.

Fortunately for the young woman fighting in the arena, she still had her weapon, having been able to barely keep a grip on both weapons as she flew. She now held both sabre and handgun out in a fighting stance. About ten feet away from her, Ebon Ray stood with his hammer in a two handed grip obviously grinning under his helmet as he prepared to unleash another barrage of attacks upon his opponent.

Anyone looking very closely would see something happen; bubble-gum pink turned to shamrock green in Misty's eyes as she saw in her mind's eye, in a split second, the explosion sent from her opponent landing just a foot in front of where she was now.

With two steps forward, Misty got in front of where she saw the explosion landing just as it was sent forward by the hammer and quickly jumped several inches into the air. The explosion occurred behind but this time though it injured her aura ever so slightly, the pink-clad duelist had braced herself to instead allow the force to send her forward flying straight towards her opponent who didn't raise his hammer in defence fast enough to stop the powerful slice across his midsection. Landing on her feet, Misty took another swing at the man's leg before once again ducking under a swing from the hammer and slicing again.

Ebon swung lower but the ever mobile fighter that was his opponent let her eyes turn green once again as her Intuitive Eye semblance showed her this attack. With a perfectly timed jump, the girl landed on top of the swung hammer and allowed the momentum to send her flying behind her target. Raising her handgun, she sent several shots from mid-air towards Titan's head each one landing somewhere on the target, whittling his Aura down finally to 19%, indicating that it was in the red and unable to continue fighting.

Misty landed on her feet with a wide smile on her face. Pride in another win filling her even as she clipped the two parts of Dual Matrix together and sheathing it on her belt.

Misty walked over to her opponent who had fallen onto his chest from the impact of the rapid fire rounds to his head and offered a hand out to him to help him up. The smile on her face making that did nothing to make the next words she uttered appear forced. "That was a great fight, well fought!"

Ebon smiled under his helmet as he got to his feet with the slight help of the much smaller girl. "You too." he said in a gruff voice before both turned their backs to each other and began waving at the crowd.

 _Yet with innocence comes complacency and purity_ leads _to fragility. When a soul is as virtuous and stainless as a hare's it becomes a weakness. Both for the H_ hare _, and those it cares about._


	4. 4 Bird

**_Disclaimer - I do not own RWBY, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth_**

 ** _A/N - this characters theme is Two Worlds by Disturbed_**

 _Birds. We see them all the time, they fly above us so free it appears as if even gravity cannot hold them. Above the ground, they fly with courage and fiery spirits that burn with determination to defend themselves and their flocks._

The mountains outside the kingdom of Mistral were as isolated as any place could be, even the loudest airships could fly a mile around and not be found by any military group, and that was the reason for the meeting right then.

Two figures were positioned in front of a stack of large crates. One was a woman, and there was no mistaking her for anything else with curves that her teal long coat and mostly loose fitting clothes couldn't cover up. This girl had bright blue hair and ember eyes. At her hips were a pair of dual handguns and just below that, on her right hip was a silver bladed cutlass with a golden coloured hilt.

Beside her a man, though some might wonder if he was truly a man with the youthful look to his face. Not to be mistaken for childish, no there was a look that suggested he hadn't truly been tested and embraced into adulthood, close but not yet. He wore white and yellow adorned clothing with a few streaks of black along the chest of the shirt. Attached to the boy's back was a large claymore almost the size of him at four feet in length. The sword was dark silver, almost gray and several mechanisms in the hilt of varying colours mostly yellow and assorted shades.

In front of these two figures were a round dozen men each one wearing a white mask that resembled the creatures of Grimm as well as white clothing with red symbols somewhere. Symbols of a wolfish like creature with claw marks through it. The symbol of the White Fang.

At the front was a single woman, much lither than her companions and black highlights to her armour that proved she was, in fact, a lieutenant and the blood red hair that went down her shoulders did nothing to sway the feeling of dangerous authority she oh so clearly commanded.

"We got it all as requested, ahead of schedule might I add." The woman named Skyler Topez said, grinning, inspecting the leather of her fingerless gloves with a cocky grin on her face.

One of the White Fang huffed at that as he gestured for the men to begin inspecting the gear. "It better be worth it, humans! You're charging us enough to make us believe your upselling us."

'We charge the same when getting this to villages who actually need it to defend themselves!" The boy, Daff Aryle said indignantly only to be stopped by a hand from his companion outstretched along his chest.

"Cool it Aryle." She said angrily, "You don't want to pick fights with your best customers!"

Daff just scowled at this and caught sight of something going on up in the mountain of crates. Those Faunus were up to something.

"Yes well... See that's where this gets complicated, new leaderships cracking down on the idea of working with humans." The lead woman said, a sadistic grin under her mask "So perhaps you can help us test the equipment you brought for us."

Once the woman who was clearly leading the White Fang said this, the five men who had been inspecting gear came out standing on top of the crates holding several of the rifles they had been bringing to them.

Skyler shook her head.

"Shame." She said, "I actually thought I respected you!" As she said this Skyler dropped some kind of canister she had pulled from her coat onto the ground, "surely you'll reconsider; we've gotten a hold of some of Atlas' new technology."

"No, we're done working with humans, now say goodbye!" She said raising her own weapon, a small black and white coloured submachine gun.

Skyler kicked the cylinder she had dropped a second ago and just as bullets began shooting at them a large dome six feet in diameter surrounded her and Daff. This dome consisted of light yellow hexagons and reflected all the bullets and the red lasers.

"Told you!" Daff said

"You want to talk about this now?" Skyler asked as she drew her handguns and held them at the ready.

Daff shook his head swiftly as he pulled Solar Justice from his back and flicked his hands so it took the form of a large assault rifle. The gun was a similar colour scheme as the sword and the size was also quite similar the size of Daffs chest and just as heavy, though the weight did nothing to deter its use in the hands of its wielder.

The shield went down but this time both Skyler and Daff were already shooting when it did, Daff unleashing a full-auto barrage at those that were on the ground forcing them to scatter while. Skyler shot upwards at the Faunus shooting at them from the mountain of crates.

With finesse to match her lithe form, the blue haired smuggler jumped into the air with several rounds seamlessly missing her as she shot so accurately she landed her own rounds inside their guns making them explode.

Landing back on her feet with a grin she holstered her handguns and drew her Cutlass, Diamondheart, from her side. The weapon curved down the bladed side creating a semi-circle out of the clean metal. A boomerang that the smuggler threw with extreme accuracy towards several stunned and disoriented Faunus.

A few meters away Daff had brought his sword down from an overhead swing completely forced his way past the short saber of the Faunus who had made the mistake of trying to parry his attack. He was crunched into the ground with the stone beneath them cracking. Though his aura protected him from most the lethality you didn't need a scroll to know the meager Aura of this nameless soldier was at best in the red.

Flicking his wrist he met another blade from one of them and with his strength made the man lose grip on his blade before following up with one powerful hit to the head from the hilt of his sword.

"Enough!" The lead woman yelled at her companions.

Daff turned his attention to this woman and realized she was now holding an SMG in one hand and a sawed-off shotgun in the other.

"He's mine!" She said flicking her two black coloured weapons together revealing a large axe with the hilt being no less than four feet.

Some might wonder how such a weapon seemed practical in any capacity for someone not sprouting muscles with muscles, but the way the weapon spun in her grip proved any dissent wrong.

Gripping Solar Justice in a two handed grip, Daff pursed his lips for just a second before he swung the large blade aimed at his opponent's chest, performing a backward flip to dodge the blade and kick Daff in the face with her movement.

Staggered slightly, but not entirely out, the blonde haired smuggler was able to parry a downward strike from the axe of his opponent. Using what was clearly a superior amount of strength, he pushed her off and continued on the offensive with easily dodged strikes.

That wouldn't be a problem for the mobile fighter who dodged, sidestepped and redirected with tactical parries everything Daff sent her way. Things took a turn for the worse for him when one particular dodge movement allowed her to land a swift strike with her axe to the back of his knee cap. Though Aura prevented it from piercing, the injury sent him onto one knee with no way to get back up as another strike came down.

Another strike came down from another spin and hit him in the chest sent him down onto his back.

Daff was still gripping his sword and as he brought it to his chest one hand on the hilt the other on the flat side of the blade. The blade began to glow a yellow gold and the White Fang Lieutenant found herself unable to see this as she brought the blade down once again, hitting him in the blade.

The yellow glow dispersed the moment the two weapons met and in one small flash of light from the point of impact the axe like weapon was sent flying from the woman's grip, repelled by the flash.

Using the opening to get to his feet, Daff once again gripped his sword in a two-handed grip. A smirk found its way onto his face as his sword once again glowed with the charging of his Semblance.

Behind the two fighters, a loud explosion could be heard as three White Fang members were sent flying from the top of the mountain of crates landing on their backs with minimal signs of life.

"Hey!" Skyler yelled from on top the mountain of boxes.

The Soldiers, who had previously been standing in a circle around their lieutenant and her desired prey, all scattered as they saw just what was pointing at them.

"It's moments like these that make me wish I had infinite pockets," Skyler said smugly as she revealed the large black painted double barrel rocket launcher slung over her shoulder. Bringing the weapon back to the ready two more missiles were fired this time at the lieutenant who was forced to dodge by shooting the shotgun side of her staff to propel herself to her right.

Glaring from under her mask, the White Fang Lieutenant unclipped her weapons so as to hold them in firearm forms, shotgun pointed at Daff and SMG pointed at Skyler.

Both the smugglers had their respective ranged weapons pointed at the woman who was now slowly taking steps backward towards the edge of the mountain.

Her ears twitched momentarily before she let a grin appear under her mask and fall backward off the cliff.

Daff and Skyler both blinked for just a brief second, but that brief second passed as the loud hum of a Bullhead airship met their ears. A second later a large white and black painted ship appeared. The ship itself had two aerial wings protruding and black tinted glass on the front. The lieutenant stood on top of the mighty war machine and had already begun shooting with her SMG. A large gun below however was the true problem, the heavy machine gun spun and began shooting and forced Skyler to dive for cover so as to reload her rocket launcher.

Daff looked at the ship for a quarter of a second before he too had to begin running to dodge the gun below.

Something clicked in the boy's mind as he flipped his sword into its gun form and gripping the second trigger beneath the primary and shot at the ground behind him. A blue coloured grenade was released from the lower barrel in the weapon which propelled Daff into the air intent on landing on the ship.

Shooting a barrage of shots, Daff was able to distract the Lieutenant long enough for him to land on the ship. With the White Fang's attention on her companion, Skyler dived out from beside one of the crates, her dual guns at the ready, with accuracy some would deem inhuman, Skyler shot several bullets directly at the woman's neck. The Aura protected her from the handgun bullets but they sent her off balance long enough for Daff's body to smash into her sending her tumbling off balance and off the airship.

As neutral as ever, the blonde smuggler stabbed his sword into the side of the airship and using it as leverage, swung downwards. Smashing the glass of the airship with a Semblance enhanced kick, Daff swiftly dispatched both the pilot and the person manning the gun.

Skyler ran towards the cliff as she saw the ship begin to go downwards with the pilot removed. She expected to see her companion jump out but when that didn't happen, she found her heart racing.

That is until in the next moment it was revealed the ship flying away in the opposite direction gaining altitude and heading upwards.

Skyler shook her head realizing what had just happened. She blinked several times before pulling from her inside coat a pair of black tinted sunglasses.

"I guess this is goodbye Son!" Skyler mumbled to herself a note of sadness in her voice as she donned the glasses to hide the sorrow in her eyes.

 _Yet when a flock goes off course and the lone bird must find its own path. To these animals, there is nothing harder than leaving the rest of their kin. So when they are forced to leave it is always a question will they fall to the ground alone to be eaten by predators._

 _Or do they accept a new flock?_

 **A/N - This is late by almost a week, and for that, I apologize. alas, this chapter is almost twice as long as the other three thanks to the inclusion of a second character. Skyler Topez as well as the person who is the bird, Daff Aryle.**

 **a warm shout out to ShadowLDrago who proofread this chapter for me.**

 **Next Chapter will be out on the 20th of January.**


	5. 1:1 Shade From the Scorching Sun

Act 1

The Shade against the Scorching Sun

Chapter 1

A Cool Shade

The sun shone high over the desert that was Vacuo. The hot sun beat down on the mostly makeshift homes and buildings that made up the desert city and at the furthest most part of this bleak city, was a dark brown pyramid-like building and in the courtyard surrounding this building, there was life.

Incoherent talk, most of it jovial, the clang of footsteps and the wheels of luggage bags being dragged along the stone ground. Humans and Faunus of all shapes and sizes mingled outside this large building with an air of excitement... School was back in session.

The school year at Shade Huntsmen Academy was beginning, or rather students were being situated with classes starting the next day, but that only added to the excitement, anticipation for initiation among the first year students, eagerness between old friends from the second, third and fourth years and even several teachers whose duties didn't actually start until tomorrow.

At the top of this pyramid looking down at the assembled students, a woman stood with her hands behind her back and an appraising look on her face. Red eyes that, despite their colour, some would say were empty of emotion, tar black hair only slightly past her ears and a black business jacket over a blood-red shirt, black knee-length skirt, and dark gray high heeled shoes.

Vermelia Sang, headmaster of Shade looked over at her students appraisingly, this year she had a special stake beyond her already immense interest in the students' wellbeing. She was convinced something was going to happen soon, and the more Huntsman and Huntresses she trained before then, the better. To focus on the few was a disservice to the many and this held true in Huntsman and Huntress training.

The door to the large office began to open with a loud creaking noise.

Without turning The headmaster just sighed, "Bones, I'm going to make this perfectly clear, there is no chance in Oum's design that I will let you make your students build a Great Rabbit Fence in the greenhouses."

The teacher, in a white lab coat with dark gray hair and a pair of goggles atop his forehead, just above his light blue eyes, shook his head. "Damn," he said before sighing "actually Sang, I'm just here to tell you the students are going to be assembled soon in the auditorium."

Vermelia breathed heavily in clear exasperation and rubbed her right temple with her right hand. "I'll be down in a minute," she said after a moment.

"Sure thing ma'am" Professor Bones said smiling before stepping out of the Headmasters Office.

Vermelia just shook her head at this, she wasn't overly fond of the beginning of year speech she was supposed to give but it was something she had to do if only to keep up appearances. It was not her forte, however, being the center of attention and eyes upon you. No, the shadows were Vermelia's true home and she knew it.

Alas, it still had to be done and thus, without bothering to hold off any longer, the Headmaster of Shade got to her feet and began walking towards the door.

Thirty floors below the headmaster's office students, no less than a hundred if not two hundred students in varying coloured wear but most of it meant to be as light as possible due to the heat of the desert around them. In this crowd people still talked and bustled but that changed in a heartbeat as a clicking sound was heard. This sound, the sound that got all the students' attention was nothing more or less than the clicking of Vermelia's high heeled shoes against the wood of the stage she was walking out on.

Every student second year or higher quieted instantly each one having some level of respect for the headmaster, whether it be out of admiration or fear would depend entirely on the student.

It took a few more seconds but before long the first years clued in and stood as quietly as their peers looking up at this darkly dressed woman.

"Thank you, students." Vermelia said with a smile on her face, a smile that seemed genuine but the truly astute would question to an extent. "Now, another year, another time to learn. As always, second years and up, you will talk to the faculty about your electives within the week, as for the First Years you will be sleeping in the auditorium tonight after being situated with lockers to house your gear and tomorrow, initiation will begin and teams will be formed."

She said it in a way that showed at least some level of concern though it was becoming very clear Vermelia didn't want to be there, and yet she didn't pass it to another teacher.

"Now I'm sure I don't need to remind any of you what you are getting into when you step into this academy, we are training all of you to be warriors and defenders. We are the Shade from the scorching sun, and I expect each and every one of you to perform at your very best and then some. The monsters we face will not be nearly as forgiving as your teachers are after all." And with that Vermelia stepped back off the stage only for another woman. A much kinder looking one with blonde long hair tied upwards before falling on her back shoulders, wearing a formal white red and black dress. Angel Rain the teacher of Field Medicine took over.

"Now a few notices before we get you all situated, first and most importantly, signup sheets for those wishing to travel to the Vytal Festival in Vale this year will be posted in the auditorium and remain there until we reach the 1st of November, however it must be an agreed upon decision, only full teams will be allowed to go." Professor Rain said smiling.

Aside from the Vytal tournament, nothing the professor said held any weight with the first years and before any of them knew it they were being directed to the locker rooms.

The locker rooms themselves were a very spacious area. White tiled floors and gray walls with rows upon rows of silver doored lockers for students to pick out.

Everyone headed off in different directions after they'd been given their instructions.

Daff Aryle for his part found one in the middle of what he thought was the sixth or seventh row. Opening the locker he pulled Solar Justice off his back and gazed into the well-shined edge of his sword. Seeing his reflection in the blade, he smiled. That is until he heard another voice.

"Either you're admiring your own weapon or you're admiring your reflection, either way, bad habit." A deep feminine voice said laced with disinterest.

Daff turned his head to see a platinum blonde, almost white haired girl whose back was already turned to him as she put her weapons, a pair of dual swords, into her own locker.

"Just thinking actually, not from here." Daff said smiling, "I'm Daff by the way," and at this, he held out his hand to the girl who was turning back to him, revealing a pair of soulful blue eyes.

Dia for her part shrugged her shoulders and shook his hand. "Dia, Dia Sky." She said calmly, "Anyway just avoid that kind of 'thinking' tomorrow and you'll be fine." Dia said before turning to her left and beginning to walk away curtly.

"Well, she's... nice." Daff said aloud with a shrug as he placed his sword in the locker, closed the door and took a look at his locker number to make sure he had the right one.

Several rows back in row four, another encounter was occurring, though a significantly less productive one. Amethyst Perla was as silent as ever as she walked towards the open locker at the very end of the row when someone unknowingly turned the corner and walked straight into her as she was opening the locker.

The pink clad girl staggered back a few steps before looking up and let emerald met lilac as the two caught each other's eyes.

"Oh, sorry," Misty said.

Amethyst shot a smile towards Misty and nodded before turning back to her locker and beginning the short process of unclipping Midnight Gloom from her wrists.

Misty blinked and then found herself rolling her eyes, "Well she's weird." She said clearly having not noticed the black cat ears atop Amethyst's head making clear she had Faunus hearing, making even mumbling easy to hear.

Fortunately for her, Amethyst didn't bother commenting, she knew from the start she would be an oddity, her talk with the headmaster made this perfectly clear.

She had been sitting down against the wall of a building in the back alley of Vale where she was sure no one would find her when an odd sound had invaded her ears, a kind of swooshing sound but ever the quiet so as to say even the Faunus barely picked it up.

It was a warm evening and barely any breeze to make it, there was no mistaking it in the mind of this young warrior, that something was about to happen.

Amethyst had jumped to her feet the second she heard this ominous sound and had both the daggers from her gauntlets in hand in regular knife form.

The form that came out of the shadows fulfilled half of Amethysts expectations; she was a well-built woman with black armour with some degree of crimson red accents on it. She wore a face mask and hood, not all that different from the one Amethyst had pulled down right now. The woman was built like an assassin, just as she had expected, what she didn't expect was for this mysterious dark-clad figure to lower her hood and reveal red eyes that actually shone with warmth. Or at least they appeared warmer then what was to be expected.

"Good evening, I take it you're the reason for the noise all over Vale?" Vermelia had asked smiling.

Amethyst ever so slightly, her eyes never wavering from the woman in front of her or her grip on her knives loosening, but ever so slightly she shook her head.

"No, you're part of the reason, but moreover you're the reason that councillor is still breathing, I applaud that." Vermelia continued. "Now perhaps you would put your weapons down and we can have a talk like ladies, as opposed to beasts ready to strike?"

The way this woman carried herself didn't exactly inspire confidence or trust in Amethyst, whether it was living under a masked leaving her own sight Jaded or the instincts of one who's trust has been shattered many times but there was not a single move to lower her knives. To her credit though she didn't strike which Vermelia saw as a plus.

"Very well, then allow me to say my piece and then I'll be on my way. You have been making quite the fuss amongst the city councils of three of the four kingdoms over the last several months and though I haven't been able to decipher your pattern, it's clear you are a formidable fighter with a knack for delicacy." Vermelia explained, "And your intents are most assuredly not against humanity if the live guards in the tower are anything to go by." This is the point knives started falling downward and out of the ready position. The first rationale in Amethyst's mind being that if this woman knew about her chasing and wasn't just killing, then at the very least she wasn't with her enemies.

"I admit I'm not in the know of whom you are following but if they span all four kingdoms without my spotting them they must be bad news, and that is why I want to extend an invitation to you." And with that Vermelia had reached into her clothing and pulled out a white paper ticket, a ticket onto a boat that after looking closely Amethyst saw was a boat to Vacuo.

"If you will take the position, I have a spot open at Shade Academy. Enhance your skills, make allies, it's a position you can surely see the advantage of." And with that, she flicked the ticket onto the ground and slowly turned around walking back into the shadows. "Think about it."

And thus after a night of contemplation, Amethyst had decided to take the woman up on her offer though that didn't mean she was a bit nervous about it, her current position, a mute in a building full of teenagers who probably never shut up, she was bound to stick out like a sore thumb or a pink bodied Grimm.

With her two gauntlets placed on the shelf at the top of the inside of the locker, Amethyst locked the door and stepped away back towards the auditorium where a basic tour of the essential locations was set to begin.

Several hours passed until the sun was beginning to set over top the pyramid shaped school and the first year students were all being situated with cots along the auditorium.

Though there was a divide between male and female students on the right and left sides of the auditorium, this divide was purely coincidental with no actual enforcing. Thus it was apparent to anyone really paying attention several boys glancing over where several of the girls stood in their pajamas and likewise girls glanced at several of the boys, particularly the ones without shirts.

Many are the places where this set up would seem inappropriate but it was how things were done and no one, looking or not, was really complaining.

That situation was about to get a lot different, however.

Misty Blaize for her part was far from annoyed at the few pairs of eyes she had on her, she had enough pride in herself to not make it obvious but that didn't change the internal thoughts in her head even as her eyes wandered themselves.

Sitting down on top of her cot the duelist found herself making a mock purr sound.

"No need to vocalise this nonsense." Came an irritated feminine voice from beside Misty.

Misty for her part looked to her side and saw a platinum blonde haired Faunus with a wolf tail laying on her stomach with a Scroll in hand, clearly not actually paying close attention to the duelist but instead seeming to send text messages to someone outside the school.

"It wasn't that loud, no need to get snippy," Misty responded with a note of indignation in her voice.

"If you must ogle, do it in silence, some of us actually understand why we're here," Dia responded dryly.

Misty rolled her eyes at that but nodded nonetheless, she didn't come to Shade specifically to make enemies, she came to learn without having military life forced down her throat.

Laying down with her back to the wolf Faunus, Misty tried getting to sleep. She was far from the kind of person to not take initiation seriously despite what she appeared like right now.

Lights began going out one by one as the teacher currently supervising was convinced all the students were settled and didn't need the light any more.

Angel Rain, Field medicine teacher, was supervising, having volunteered because her morning was free since her classes were all first year in the morning. And since the first years would be spending tomorrow in initiation, she would catch up on her sleep then.

Despite the sleep that had taken hold of the students all lying on their given cots, there was still an air of excitement. For tomorrow would be a first step into the lives that everyone there had chosen.

Driven here by an enemy, a thought of redemption, a thrill for adventure, it didn't matter. This was a hall filled with prospects and people ready to fight. And fight they would.

 **A/N - Okay a single day late, for that I am sorry and this time I actually do have a reason for it... I made a terrible mistake. I forgot my beta reader had this strange thing called a "life," it's a very strange thing that apparently makes things not go according to plan.**

 **Okay so next chapter I'm scheduling for the 26th at the latest.**

 **Now one quick announcement, I've got a poll on my profile that I'd really appreciate having people vote on. The question is which of my stories you'd like me to focus most of my time on. I'll be putting some time into everything but I might hold out on updating something if it has 1 and another has six or seven votes. It's arbitrary and shouldn't be too big of an indicator but it'll still help me out if you guys vote for whichever you want to see most from me.**

 **Anyway that's everything, so I will see you guys and gals on the 26th.**


	6. 1:2 Blades of the Seekers

Chapter 2

The Blades of the Seekers

A lesser soul would have stood where the first year students stood, looked down and thought, 'We are really far up.' Or they would, if their attention wasn't on the ever intimidating Headmaster standing in front of them.

"Now most of you should have an idea of what is about to transpire but for the benefit of those who don't, I'll explain. Down below us is a former Dust Quarry, abandoned after it was mined dry. Several packs of Grimm made it their home. At the heart of the drill, you will find the relics. Your job is to collect one relic per partnership and bring it to the outside." Vermelia explained curtly.

"Partners will be based on whoever you first make eye contact with after hitting the ground." the headmaster concluded.

Several heads flicked back and forth, several people trying to make eye contact with their friends and figure out who to look for once they landed.

Some were indifferent, though a handful were irritated at this, Dia Sky in particular was not fond of the concept of teams, but if she wanted to train here it was a tradeoff she'd have to accept. 'As long as my team leader isn't some stuck up know it all, I should be fine'. She thought to herself.

"Professor, how are we getting down there?" Someone called out. A girl in a red and white sweater with a dark took on her head. Mey Zedong, a girl armed with the sniper rifle currently strapped to her back.

"The platforms beneath you will open and send you spiraling into hollowed out tunnels," Vermelia said bluntly. "Now children, there is just one piece of advice I can give you in this situation."

Mey looked up with a hopeful look on her face, glad to hear any advice the headmaster could give them to get through initiation. "Don't die." The headmistress said in a blunt, and almost cruelly so, tone of voice.

Before anyone could even comprehend what had just been said each of the silver platforms that the two dozen first years all gave out and all of the training warriors with varying levels of yelling and one or two curse words were sent falling into the pits.

Smile absent as ever. Vermelia turned away and looked down into the Grimm infested pit that was the location of initiation.

One by one each Huntsman or Huntress found their way onto the ground below sliding through their tunnels some working harder than others to keep their weapons in one piece. But eventually, each one skidded to a halt and landed on the sandstone ground. They were surrounded by old pipes and abandoned equipment that never got recovered, such as bulldozers or excavators and walkways into makeshift buildings all around.

Once he hit the ground, Daff Aryle dusted himself off lightly before pulling Solar Justice from his back and began walking casually towards the centre of the dig site.

Glancing down at a golden watch on his wrist he saw that the digital clock was telling him the time was 9 PM at the start of September. That means the sun should have risen relatively close to pointing east. Since the drill where the relics were positioned was also east from where they had started, it was a safe bet to assume the tunnel hadn't taken him far enough to have passed it, making the sun an easy navigational tool.

Daff chuckled to himself, Skyler certainly ingrained survival skills in him pretty thoroughly when they had been travelling together. Survival. That is something that was on his mind right before his sword was brought from his side and swung in an upwards angle, beheading smaller Grimm that had lunged at him.

'That was fast.' Daff thought to himself as the Ursa dissolved into its back misty form and disappearing. "Wonder how the others are doing?" He mumbled to himself.

Several minutes away, Mey Zedong was walking cautiously forward, her sniper rifle in a ready position. She was no expert in hand to hand combat and knew that she had to be extra cautious to avoid letting any Grimm get too close to her.

That caution did pay off as a small crunch was heard from behind an old white painted bulldozer. Turns out that crunch was none other than a rather large Grimm, at least 20 feet tall, this Ursa.

Mey put her scope to her face and began shooting, only to find out that her rounds didn't pack enough punch to actually kill this creature, or at least without getting it in a weak point.

It was at that point however that an opportunity arose, "Shoot its throat!" Someone yelled form behind the Ursa right before sparks of blue electricity fired through the creature and it threw its head back, obviously pained by the strike.

Not needing to be told twice, the dark haired sniper raised her rifle again and shot at the now exposed neck. The rounds connected with a satisfying splat sound before the Ursa began dissipating.

The creature dissipated and as it did it revealed the person who had helped her in her confrontation. A boy with dark brown hair and lilac eyes, he sported a blue vest and white undershirt.

"Well, looks like we're partners," the boy said smiling to her.

May raised a fist, "Name's May," she said.

"Nolan," He said lightly punching her fist with his own, "Come on, don't want to be last to the relics."

Mey nodded and without another word exchanged, the two proceeded forward once again.

Several other groups were assembled; most people, for their part, not overly angry about their partnership, only a handful were left by the fifteen-minute mark, one of them being Dia Sky.

Dia had jogged across the sandstone and made sure to be moving at a good balance between fast and cautious. The Regulus Fangs in their sword forms, with their wielder ready to strike at anything that would jump at her.

Her most common prey turned out to be the creatures preparing to strike at her, Three Beowolves jumped at her from three different angles, two in front of her one behind.

Ducking around the strike of the one to her left, she held the sword in her right hand in an iron grip as she lunged forward and impaled the Grimm that had jumped at her from the other direction. Pulling with all her body weight, Dia yanked the blade free and using the momentum gained, spun around and sliced clean through the head of the second one she had dodged the strike from previously.

Spinning on her heel, the wolf Faunus looked on in shock to see the third Beowolf was already evaporating, however. That is until her shock turned to anger as she realized a certain pink-clad girl was standing on top of the creature with a metallic saber in hand.

Misty Blaize smiled as she hopped down from atop the vanishing beast and landing in front of her new partner.

"Well partner, ready to move?" Misty asked with a smile,

"Just remember why we're here!" Dia said realizing there was no way around this predicament for her. "Come on, Princess."

Misty internally deadpanned at that nickname, certainly one she was going to have to talk about later, but not now, now was the time to let Dual Matrix talk for her.

On the other side of the Quarry, there was one final pair ready to be made and similarly to Dia and Misty, these two would also be brought together by a conflict against the enemies of humanity.

Daff Aryle stood with his sword in hand surrounded by three Ursai. He let a confident grin onto his face as the first one swung at him. He met the strike with the sharpened end of Solar Justice, slicing into the creature's arm before pulling the sword out of the wound, lunging forward and spearing the creature through the chest.

He yanked the weapon out of the wound just in time to jump out of the way of another set of claws and jumped back, flicking his gun into its secondary mode and fired several rounds aimed at the creature's head and neck.

Daff spun slightly on his feet and aimed at the third creature, but before he could fire he saw something come from behind this monster. A rope with a large silver dagger attached to it curled around and sliced through the neck of the Ursa with expert precision leaving the creature falling over and dissipating.

The rope curled its way back to on top of a large rock that had been beside the creature and Daff now saw a girl clad in black and dark purple standing atop it.

"Hey, thanks for the save!" He said smiling deciding in the name of politeness it was best he not say he had it handled. Even if he did he was also sure she knew that too, given how serious she looked.

Amethyst leapt from her perch and landed just in behind Daff so their backs were facing each other.

Daff turned around just in time to see her tilting her head as if indicating the two should move.

"And now we shall march onward on our noble quest, shall you take the lead milady?" Daff said with an exaggerated bow and a grin on his face.

Amethyst turned around and looked at Daff, blinking several times in confusion, unsure of what he was doing.

A moment passed with the two not talking before Daff said, "Eh, forget it, let's just go, the drill should be this way." Daff said pointing slightly to the right of Amethyst.

The purple haired girl nodded and together without another word spoken, they walked off.

Back at the top of the cliff, Vermelia Sang was looking down at her scroll, the holographic device was showing the camera feeds from below and she had just watched the last partnership form.

'Well, Mr Aryle is certainly not the worst partner for Miss Perla, at the very least he'll keep her secret when he finds out.' Vermelia thought to herself as she looked at the rest of the teams.

So far, nothing worthy of note had occurred. Vermelia felt no need to calculate how well the students did during initiation, considering so much was left to chance, some would have a clear in and out path with only a single Beowolf pack to deal with, others might get the ire of a Death Stalker and require her to take the field despite fighting as well as they can be expected to. No the headmaster of Shade was there to oversee, watch for her own personal notes on the students and to be ready to jump down should a threat too large for the young Hunters in training to handle.

'Nothing is ever this easy, something is going to happen.' Vermelia thought, looking up from her scroll and down into the cliff. Most of the more lucky teams had already gathered their pieces but two teams were still left to be assembled.

'Let's just hope they're easy names to find.' Dealing with Sno's complaining about how much time it takes to name teams to fit the old tradition is not high on my priority list right now, Vermelia thought grimly with just a slight note of amusement. Professor Sno, her deputy Headmaster was not the most agreeable person but when push came to shove he did what it took to get the job done, and that's one thing Vermelia respected above all other traits a person could exhibit.

Down in the middle of the Quarry, one of the last groups was beginning to reach the relics. Nolan and May climbed to the base of the large metallic structure that had clearly been the main refinery at the quarry with rafters and chain like stairways leading all over a large tower like structure. At the base there were several pedestals, about 12 or so and only four of these relics were left. There were two sets, one set of bright green chess piece sized knives, the other a set of equally sized bronze bows.

"The bow, way better than a knife," May said smiling as she picked up one of the remaining bronze bow pieces.

"I can get behind that," Nolan responded with a nod right before a loud clang could be heard, something running along the metallic floor, and whatever it was it had four legs.

Nolan and May both raised their weapons in preparation for a Grimm but before May's finger pulled down the trigger of her rifle, she was able to see it wasn't a Grimm, just another pair of Huntresses on their mission. This pair being Dia Sky and Misty Blaize.

"Hey guys," Misty said with a wave of her right hand. A gesture that might have been threatening thanks to the fact she had a handgun in the hand. Fortunately, both Nolan and Mey had good enough perception to see the clear lack of anything malicious in the gesture, if the wide smile was anything to go by.

"What's up?" May asked with a smile of her own while she pulled her gun to a resting position.

"Just finished dealing with a small pack of Ursai, you guys?" Misty asked.

"Beowolf pack and a Boarbatusk in the entrance." Misty said shrugging.

Dia hadn't said anything, instead walking past the other pair and picking the first relic her hand found, one of the green dagger pieces.

"Hang on... I'm calling another entrance." May said raising three fingers, "Three, two, one, and now!"

Only a half a second too soon did she say the final word when a loud rumble was heard and the four assembled teens looked to an entrance into the room from the second level and saw a large Ursa fly inwards and land on its stomach with a sickening crunch of metal before beginning to evaporate.

The Ursa, for its part, had been walking, waiting for someone to walk into its claws. Getting smashed through the opening was Daff hitting it with a telekinetically enhanced strike while it was distracted defending itself from the wild and unpredictable rope dagger of his partner.

Both of these two stepped in through the opening and jumped down onto the ground below, Daff with a loud thud and Amethyst light-footed enough to have been almost entirely silent.

"Well that was fun," Daff said smiling as he rolled his neck a few times while Amethyst as silent as ever walked towards the pedestals and pulled a relic from the nearest Pedestal, the other Jade Knife. She held up the relic for her partner to see to which he just nodded and said "Works for me."

"You guys have any more trouble than we did?" Misty asked curiously.

"A round dozen in total, nothing serious," Daff said with an affirmative nod from his partner to back it up.

Dia looked away in lieu of looking out the window that Amethyst and Daff had entered through. "This seems too easy." She said finally.

"She said it," Daff said putting a palm on his face.

"She said it," May responded nodding also putting a hand on her face.

"What?" Dia said looking between the blonde swordsman and the hatted sniper.

At this more footsteps could be heard running, far faster and more urgent then Misty and Dia had been.

Two more people looking completely and utterly horrified were running inside the room.

A tanned skin boy with a white vest and magenta sleeveless undershirt and a dark-skinned boy with a green vest and black sleeveless undershirt, Brawnz Ni and Roy Stallion respectively, were running inside before stopping briefly with their hands on their knees breathing heavily. Clearly, something had ended up forcing them to run from whatever fight they had ended up getting in.

Five sets of eyes all turned ever the slowly towards Dia each every pair accusingly and derivatively staring at her.

"Oh come on, how could I have known this would happen?!" Dia said angrily.

"That's why you never say 'this is too easy," May responded with a small growl.

"Uh yeah, guys, hate to interrupt," Brawnz began, standing upright.

"But there are at least two King Taijitu on their way here right now," Roy responded glaring at the others.

At this, Mey realized something else might be up. Turning away from the others, she jumped towards the rafters above them and latched on with the hooked part of her rifle. Spinning around, she got to the second level and swiftly stepped outside. Putting the scope to her eye she felt her heart sink. Her suspicion was true.

"There's more than King Taijitu out there guys!" She called down as she looked back out and looked at the dozen packs of Ursai and Beowolves coming at them.

"At least three dozen Ursai and Beowolves are headed with them," May yelled downwards.

Everyone looked around and realised beyond a shadow of a doubt they were in trouble.

"Tactical retreat?" Roy asked thinking aloud.

"I can get behind that." Daff responded nodding, as did his partner Amethyst.

Without another word, the four pairs began running towards the adjacent exit two at a time, the large group began setting out through the Quarry. Misty and Roy were at the front and this proved beneficial as saber sliced through Beowolves and claw punched into the throat of Ursai, clearly, several Grimm were coming from the other side.

"The crane!" Dia yelled out, pointing in front of them. A large white painted device with a large pole like claw going upwards sixty feet, still standing straight up and clearly as steady as ever.

"I'm on it," Mey nodded, but before she could start heading towards the crane she felt a hand on her arm. Turning her head back she looked into the bright emerald eyes of Amethyst right before she shook her head. Mey was unsure what the girl was doing until she stepped in front of her and thrust her arm out towards the top of the crane. From her wrist, a long rope with a dagger on the end was sent towards it. The dagger curled around and hooked on the large hook of the crane.

Mey was more than able to figure out what was happening, and instinctively gripped her sniper rifle tighter before Amethyst began reeling in the weapon and ascending, pulling her up with her. Swinging upwards, Mey and Amethyst got to the crane and once they were there, the young sniper hooked her weapon onto the top and hoisted herself up, getting into position while the assassin like fighter thrust her other arm out and sent a second rope towards the halfway mark down the large pole of the crane.

Unhooking the first, Amethyst was sent spirally down, spinning her way around the crane she found herself kicking a Beowolf, sending it spiraling back before unhooking her weapon and letting it spin back into the gauntlet part of Midnight Gloom.

With Mey in position, several of the lesser Grim began dropping like flies as the Beowolves on their farthest flank became her target.

Brawnz and Dia had taken the front of this attack with the Ursai that had followed them out, sword slicing through those closest and feet moving fluently to dodge strikes. It was almost routine for Dia, her constant trips out into the desert for the sole purpose of hunting the Grimm dumb enough to try and attack her.

It was when the first of the King Taijitu appeared that Dia found herself in trouble. So, focused on the Beowolves surrounding her, she realized she wouldn't be able to block the incoming fangs as the black head of the two ended snake snapped towards her.

A large blue explosion however occurred right on the creatures main head forcing it to the side, an explosion sent from the grenade launcher that was part of Daff's Solar Justice. Cocking the gun, the boy grinned as he began firing at full auto towards the smaller Grimm. The second King Taijitiu was several meters away and that was for one simple reason, Misty had lured it away, confident she could defeat it if it was alone. The creature was surrounding her about ready to squeeze but before it could, she managed to jump into the air and slice into the creature's head, slicing through one of its fangs.

The other head was about to strike her from behind but before it could, two fist-sized golden saw blades were sent flying at the creature, one slicing through its eyes, the other slicing its throat. The white head thrashed in agony right as Misty jumped once again above the head of the black head and pulled her handgun from the hilt of her saber, shooting several times into the eyes of the creature. It was down and unable to recover from the intense injuries dealt to both heads at such high vulnerability points, the Taijitu fell and evaporated.

The first one, however, was far less easy to kill and this proved a problem as the back of the creature smashed into the crane and made it shake in a way that Mey was not prepared for. Barely maintaining a grip on her sniper rifle, Mey was unable to stop herself from falling backwards off of her vantage point.

Hearing the yell of one of his new friends, Daff stopped firing and looked behind him to see the falling girl without a way to land. Not even thinking twice, Daff dropped Solar Justice to the ground, jumped onto the treads of the crane and jumped several feet in the air. Timing it just right, Daff was able to catch Mey one hand on her back and one under her knees and using his own momentum to slow hers, he landed on one knee before getting up and gently putting her down.

"Thanks." Mey said, running over and picking up the rifle that had fallen next to them. Pulling it to the ready position, she pulled the trigger in the next second right beside Daff for a bullet to land in another of the Beowolves, "We're even." She smiled.

"No argument out of me." Daff said smiling as his fists began to glow yellow for a brief second, growing stronger as the second turned to three, before finally they were bright as the yellow of his shirt and packed enough raw power that when he punched the Ursa that was in front of the crane, it went flying several yards and landed with a crunch against a dark rusted van.

Picking up his sword, Daff got back up and readied to fire.

The last King Taititu was all that was left to deal with and it was the time for the last two to shine. Brawnz with his claws was slicing into the head as he had positioned himself on top of the snake's head. The white head of the serpentine Grim began thrashing around, but he continued punching, dealing slight but mostly noticeable damage to the head. All the while Nolan had managed to get underneath the head of the other serpent and had thrust his cattle prod into the head of the beast, sending the creature into a frenzy.

"Let go in two seconds!" Dia yelled up at Nolan.

'Yeah, sure!" Nolan yelled back, clearly making a non-verbal point that he wasn't holding on any longer than that anyway. Letting go and flinging towards the ground, Dia shot her dual shotguns just in time for the large Dust explosive to land inside the beast's head. It didn't even know what happened before it exploded.

On the other head Brawnz saw a rope tie around the upper part of the serpent's mouth before the dagger embedded in the inside of the creature's mouth. There was a brief second before the other end of Midnight Gloom pulled Amethyst towards the creature and she landed on top of the head with it.

With a silent nod, she pulled the gauntlet that wasn't currently being used to tether her to the creature via stab wound to the upper mouth, placed it in front of the eyes that were already significantly wounded and twitched her fingers. From the top of her wrist, yellow electric dust powered through the wound and went straight into the brain of the creature, killing it instantly.

With both heads now killed beyond a shadow of a doubt, the acrobatic people who had been killing the creatures got off the now dissipating monster and walked back to the rest of the group. There was a brief moment of silence before someone piped up.

"That, was, awesome!" Misty yelled whooping into the air. "We totally kicked butt!"

Even Dia, in all her distaste for Misty's personality couldn't help but smile as she glanced around to make sure all the Grimm were gone.

"Hunters one, Grimm zero!" Misty exclaimed smiling,

"You got that right!" Mey responded, also smiling as she fist-bumped her partner.

Dia smiled but shook her head. "Come on, we'll celebrate when we're out of here." She said.

Later that night the teams that had been in the initiation through the day were all assembled in the Auditorium of Shade, the stage lit by white lights as the new teams were announced by Vermelia.

"Brawnz Ni, Mey Zedong, Nolan Portfrio and Roy Stallion. The four of you collected the Bronze Bow pieces, from this day forth you will be known as team BRNZ led by Brawnz Ni," Vermelia said. Several people clapped their hands and Mey lightly punched the leader in the arm smiling up at him in a congratulatory way. Brawnz nodded but didn't say anything due to Vermelia continuing.

"And finally, Misty Blaize, Amethyst Perla, Dia Sky and Daff Aryle, the four of you collected the Jade Dagger pieces, from today forth you will be known as team DAMD, led by Dia Sky."

It was as if the world had stopped, time around her slowed to a crawl as the last words were spoken. Her... Leader. Dia was at a complete loss, she was the lone wolf, she fought alone, being on a team was difficult enough but leading one? It was a horrific thought and anyone who knew her knew she would make a terrible leader. SHE knew she'd be a terrible leader, a leader had to be endearing and cooperative... And Dia knew she was neither and she liked it that way.

"Way to go, Dia!" Daff congratulated. Dia's eyes wandered but her vocal chords refused to listen to her. Amethyst stood on the farthest end of the team with a neutral expression on her face before wiping that look from her face. Surely Dia wouldn't be as bad as she acted, after they had all proven their fighting prowess on the battlefield earlier that day.

"Professor Sang, I'd like to request to not be leader," Dia said abruptly.

The professor, however, hadn't heard her and instead was looking out into the crowd of students and teachers who had assembled there . "Now all of you, time for bed." Vermelia said calmly with a neutral expression on her face as she turned and walked away.

Dia's hands clenched into fists, lead this team, even if she could stand any of them, that'd still be impossible.

"Don't sweat it, you'll do great," Daff said smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder. Dia, however, pulled her shoulder away angrily.

"Just get to the Dorm, we're getting sleep," Dia said angrily.

"Of course Captain." He exclaimed, "We're off to dreamland for our occupation mission!"

Three long, deep breaths came out of Dias' nostrils as she calmed herself down. Truly this team infuriated her to no end. If it wasn't Misty taking none of this seriously or showing off, it was Daff being sarcastic and annoying in general.

"This is going to be a long four years." Dia thought dejectedly as the group finally got to their dorm room.

 **A/N - Wooo boy, I'm going to say this right here and right now... I had a blast writing this, a bloody blast! Teams BRNZ and DAMD didn't just start their semester with a bang... they started with a Yang!**

 **Okay, okay enough of Yangs worst puns. it's a day late and again I'm sorry, I promise I'm done forgetting some people actually have lives!**

 **Now just a few things really quick, One if anyone is interested I think the theme Song for this arc is Brave and the Bold by Disturbed.**

 **Second, if anyone would be up to trying to figure out the allusions of these four, the hints are in the eye colour, their analogies at the beginning and end of their character shorts, and with the exception of Amethyst their weapon names. if anyone is up for taking a guess you get an internet cookie and a spoiler if you so decide.**

 **And finally, please remember the poll on my profile is still up if you have a preference for which of my current projects I focus on.**

 **Okay, that about wraps it up for me. look for the next chapter on January 30th**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	7. 1:3 Disdainful Experiences

Chapter 3

Disdainful Experience

There comes a time in every person's life where they must endure something that they hate to no end, it is this moment that defines the character.

If these words were to hold true then Dia Sky would be the most atrociously undesirable character in the world, for she had to do just that. Listen to a lecture.

The first class of the day was Field Medicine taught by Professor Rain, a kind looking woman with golden blonde hair.

"Alright, welcome class to the first lesson in field medicine," Professor Rain said smiling at the class she had assembled. The classroom was set up in a way that made each of the four rows make an upwards direction so it was easy to see over the people in front, they formed a semi-circle which converged in front of the whiteboard. Along the walls were several mostly vague diagrams of the human body and the many organ systems that made up said body. The lights were shining downwards and a window behind the students was open revealing the natural light of the desert sun.

"Now I'm going to be blunt about this, I know at least half of you have no desire to learn what I have to teach, many are the students who would think that defending the world from the forces of darkness means fighting and nothing else. But when push comes to shove you never know what will happen, battlefields are dangerous and injuries are common, knowing how to heal wounds that get past your auras can be the difference between life and death for you or those fighting beside you." She said plainly and sternly.

The seriousness of the talk that the teacher had just given had everyone, even the usually talkative Daff completely dumbstruck and unable to speak.

"If that isn't enough to encourage you to take this class seriously then there is nothing I can do to change your mind." Professor Rain concluded, "Now are there any questions before we begin the lesson?"

It was at this moment that May Zedong raised her hand, the professor waved her hand encouraging her to speak with a polite and kind smile that seemed to be her trademark.

"What do we do if we cannot save someone even with this knowledge?" May asked just a little hesitantly.

Angel for all her kind and gentleness could be seen visibly wincing at this before she straightened up. "This... Ties into a lesson I believe can only be learned truly in the worst of situations, however good you are at your craft... There was always be jobs you cannot perform, you must remember that none of you are gods, you can't be expected to do everything!"

There was a brief moment of silence once again. A palpable one that even Dia couldn't help but stir from in her glossed over state of mind. It was a rare moment where every single one of the teens in this room would ever be completely and one hundred percent silent.

Yet her darkened state of conversing with the students vanished in one second and that ever caring smile returned to her face as she said, "Now I thought today would be a good day to cover the bare bones of first aid, no pun intended." The professor said as she walked over to her side and pulled from the side a plastic skeleton hanging from a pole with wheels on the bottom.

Numerous students groaned seeing the pun even before she had clarified it wasn't intended and the professor only chuckled at their responses before pulling a measuring stick off of her desk and beginning to point at specific bones in the arm. "Now these ones in the arm are usually the most harmless when broken, at least by contrast to the others..."

Several people had already stopped listening, though most of the class were paying eager attention there were a handful that hadn't quite been bought by their teachers speech at the beginning, Dia who was still as bitter as ever at her being leader, and Amethyst whom wouldn't admit to knowing all of this about the human skeletal system. The knowledge of human anatomy she had acquired long ago she herself merely made a few notes in her notebook about which areas she'd be expected to remember.

The class went on in a silent drivel of the happy and pleasant but undeniably stern voice of Professor Rain giving her lecture and students letting their pencils and pens roll along the pages of their given notebooks, it was actually quite interesting, those who had any interest at all, even those who hadn't slept the best were somehow able to remain awake and alert throughout the lecture. By the half an hour mark all four members of team BRNZ were certain there was something in the air keeping them awake.

"Psst," Nolan said tapping Misty on the shoulder from the row behind her.

"Yeah?" Misty whispered back not turning her head from her note taking but also not totally ignoring him rather multi-tasking as best she could with the scratching of her pencil still moving along her notebook.

"Have you noticed no one has fallen asleep?" Nolan asked.

Misty was about to answer but before she could a loud "ahem," could be heard from the front.

"Mr Portfrio have you been listening?" Professor Rain said putting her hands together over her lower chest.

"Uh yes ma'am, you were just talking about how if the bone in the upper leg is broken it's actually a crucial wound and you need to take fire dust to it immediately," Nolan said smiling as he was sure that's exactly what the teacher had been saying before he started talking.

"Good! you'll get a warning this time but if I catch you disrupting the class again it's detention!" She exclaimed sternly, in a voice that was filled with an undeniable note of truth. this woman for all her facade of kindness in teaching was not one to be trifled with.

"That was harsh," May mumbled to herself as she put lowered her head back down to the paper in front of her keeping her head down in order to avoid the ire of this teacher.

The hour passed until finally the bell rang and students began filing out.

"Now be sure to listen closely to the rest of your professors," Professor Rain hollered after them as everyone began packing up their notebooks and heading out.

"Okay, where to next?" Daff asked out loud no one in particular as he pulled out his Scroll and opening the spot where he had saved the schedule. "Grimm Studies with Professor Bones."

"You sure?" Misty asked checking her own scroll, "Says here' I've got History."

"We don't have all of our classes together!" Dia exclaimed with a shake of her head as well as clear and obvious exasperation in her voice.

No one of the assembled teens really had the heart or the desire to challenge Dia about her rude way of putting the clear miscommunication that had occurred, instead opting to go their separate ways.

Dia and Daff had Grimm studies, along with Nolan and Roy from team BRNZ. Grimm Studies was a class taught by Professor Bones, an eccentric man with something of a wild spirit.

The classroom didn't disappoint either, as the students began walking into the Grimm Studies classroom they were greeted with a similar general layout to that of Field Medicine with the rising array of seats looking down on a whiteboard. However unlike Field Medicine which had several harmless charts of human anatomy on the walls, here there were what some would have to assume were plastic made versions of mounted Grimm Heads.

Of course no one thought they were real, everyone in the room knew enough about Grimm to know they vanished after being slain, still, it was far from an appealing sight to behold while studying.

Dia took a seat at the front and pulled out her notebook, eager to get started on something she actually cared about, Daff sat next to her and though with a bit more calm in his bodily movements also pulled out his own writing utensils and notebook. Nolan and Roy took the seats behind their friends and silently, Nolan with a smile and Roy with an indifferent look on his face sat down and looked forward.

Some would have fallen asleep in Field Medicine, the reason for no one doing so a clear mystery to the Huntsman and Huntresses in training. Yet there would be no mystery as to the attentiveness of the students in this class. it was why they were all here, the Creatures of Grimm, the monsters each and every one of these students were ultimately being trained to fight. This created an electric environment to say the least.

Several other groups assembled there over the next minute until finally every seat was filled and the teacher who had been sitting behind his desk stood up and walked out in front of said piece of furniture.

"Good morning students." Th teacher said leaning against the front of his paper-strewn desk.

"So I take it at least a handful of you came here from Sparring yes?" Professor Bones asked up at the students.

There was silence, a few heads turned around looking at one another, a few people trying to figure out who the teacher was referring to. A full minute went by like this until eventually, the teacher spoke up.

"So I was mistaken, that's what I get for not looking at Sno's schedule. So I guess first years aren't the ones I'm going to have to have.a word with, good." The professor said shrugging. "Now let's begin."

At this the teacher pressed a button on their scroll, the lights dimmed slightly and a large blue hologram appeared over the desk. A creature with spikes on it's back and a wolfish face to it.

"This is a..." Professor Bones began but this time he found himself being interrupted.

"A Beowulf Alpha!" Dia said raising her hand as she said it, "Usually found at the front of packs, in Vacuo typically between ten and twenty smaller Grimm, they are the strongest and the instinctual leaders if slain the rest will be uncoordinated for the remainder of the fight." Dia said as if reading directly from a textbook. Daff, Nolan, Roy and at least a dozen other students all looked at the girl who had just taken the thunder straight from the teachers grasp, some with eyes of anger, others expressions of admiration and some with simple glares of annoyance.

"Well... Miss?" The teacher asked waving his hand for it to continue the statement.

"Sky," Dia said her voice not betraying any fear at repercussions.

"Well miss Sky, the enthusiasm is appreciated but for the benefit of those I actually do have to teach I'd like to ask you to refrain from interrupting in future." Bones said calmly though with a note that suggested he was genuinely impressed at the girl's knowledge.

Dia did nothing but nod at this crossing her arms and leaning back slightly.

Daff who was sitting next to her just shrugged at his teammate's response, It wasn't the most agreeable thing to do but he couldn't fault her for being enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge. At least that's what his inner devil's advocate was telling him.

fifteen minutes went by with Professor Bones going into the most basic and, bare bones of the Beowulf physiology until the time came that the man turned to the class and said, "Now then, who would like a chance to practice the weaknesses I've been showcasing?"

Dias' hand shot into the air faster then some would even think possible, several other hands went into the air as well though to much less excitement.

"Alright, Mr Stallion, are you up for this?" Professor Bones said pointing towards the dark-skinned boy of Team BRNZ.

Roy nodded silently getting to his feet and walking down to the front of the class with an aura of confidence mixed with hidden unease at being put in front of the class.

Seeing as how each student had been requested to retrieve their weapons prior to class Roy only had to pull his weapon from under the desk, two golden brown saw blade-like weapons. He held the two weapons in a throwing stance.

"Now, I want you to throw your blades at the creature where it would be most damaged." The teacher said gesturing to a blue life-sized hologram of a Beuwolf. "Land the most accurate shot you can in under two seconds of my saying go!"

Roy nodded ever the silent but ready as he starred down the fake creature.

"Three, two, one, and... Go!" Professor Bones said.

In that second Roy threw his first blade like a frisbee, then proceeded to spin around and throw the second one. The first flew straight for the creatures head while the other through the stomach.

They came back to him like boomerangs but once he caught them the student saw only a look of disapproval on the teachers face. "Not quite Mr Stallion." Professor says, "The head where the beast would instinctually protect making it harder to actually land and the chest isn't a sure-fire kill."

"Sorry sir," Roy said lamely.

"Just be sure to pay closer attention next time." Bones said in a forgiving but stern tongue.

Dia looked at the display with pursed lips, there was nothing she hated more than the forgiving nature of these teachers, she had fought these Grimm as training and had learned that you can't make mistakes on the battlefield for risk of death, it was something that she would never agree with, even if her partners light warning look was enough to remind her her position by comparison to the teacher.

Daff had caught a look of contempt in his leader's eyes and had done what he could without causing a scene, which thankfully proved to have been enough. Though he himself wasn't quite understanding of her plight there was still a part of him that wanted to try and understand. Yet he couldn't do that right now as the class continued on.

Though Roy and Nolan both took far more rigorous notes after the failed presentation the teacher's forgiveness had proven more than enough of a wake-up call away from any of the inattentiveness that might have plagued their thoughts. Though several more students had been called to try and stab the Beuwolf hologram the class was a blur for the four at the back, especially to Dia who wasn't called upon throughout the entirety of the class.

"Unbelievable!" Dia mumbled angrily as she walked out of the classroom.

"Hey, if it's any consolation we do have Sparring right after lunch," Daff said trying to get his teammates spirits up.

"Right... Solo fighting... Just need to make it through History." Dia said mumbling to herself.

Daff could do nothing but roll his eyes once he was behind his team leader. Seems being friends with the rest of this team was going to be somewhat harder than I had originally thought, he thought dejectedly.

 **A/N - nothing really to say on this one, she's on time and nothing need be said**

 **Please remember that the poll for which of my projects should get the most attention is still active so if you've got a spare minute and enjoy what you're reading please consider placing a vote.**

 **Next Chapter will be out on the 3rd of February**


	8. 1:4 Saviour in the Night

Chapter 4

Savior in the Night

The final class of the day had been Sparring. Though the first class hadn't been anything special, considering three-quarters of the time had been spent with Professor Sno calling forth students one by one to wail on a mechanical training dummy. He said it was to calculate standings so he wouldn't just have to randomly pick people. In the minds of most, this made perfect sense. But to those itching to fight, it was still a downside.

"So how are we doing this?" Misty asked, sitting on her bed, the top bunk on the right side of the room. The room itself a bland brown hardwood floor with white painted walls, a window on the far side adjacent the door to the hall. Two bunk beds and two desks at the ends of them as well as two side tables beside each one.

"Well I mean, the walls beside our given bunks are pretty much fair game for decoration, that's all the space I'll need," Daff said, gesturing to his Achieve Men poster which had already been taped to the wall beside the bottom bunk on the left side of the room.

"Same here," The pink-clad duelist smiled, gesturing to her wall where she had a picture of a younger her with two people standing behind her, both with her red hair, but a father with bright green eyes and a mother with her lilac ones.

"I mean, do whatever you want as long as I still have a place to sleep and put my clothes," Dia shrugged, pulling off her breastplate to reveal a blue T-shirt and dark blue sweat pants. "Now, since we're being told to stay in hygienic shape for whatever reason, I'm going to go have a shower," she said walking off towards the door on the left side of the room.

"Seriously, there's no need to be such a stick in the mud!" Misty exclaimed loudly so she'd be heard through the bathroom door.

"Just telling the truth," Dia responded, disinterest dripping from her voice.

Misty shrugged and looked out the window, distracting herself from her infuriating leader. She wasn't one to take unwarranted criticism very well but for now, she held her tongue, instead busying herself by looking out the window and watching the setting sun.

The sun was setting over the desert and the clouds were tinged with orange, a shade that was too bright to be considered the rage like color of red but also too dark to be truly soothing, it was a perfect balance and despite her affinity for bright violet, Misty would always admit she liked the color of sunset orange above other colors.

Through this entire conversation, Amethyst lay on her bed, the bottom bunk just beneath Dia's bed. She lay on her stomach reading the large textbook for Field Medicine she had been given during the class. She hadn't uttered a word to the rest of the team all day and this hadn't sat well with the others, she was even more distant than Dia, only in a more silent and in a way unnerving way.

"Hey Amethyst, you know we weren't assigned any reading yet." Daff offered smiling over at his partner.

Amethyst turned her head, her bright emerald orbs staring into his bright teal ones, her expression was unreadable as she shrugged her shoulders at him before turning back to her book.

Daff blinked, 'Still nothing?' He thought unsure of what to make of his partner, she had yet to make even the most remote effort to try and communicate with her team all day. Then again, if his time in Mistral's underground had taught him anything it was the ability to read people, yet Amethyst had the perfect poker face. He was no expert by any means, but the fact he couldn't see anything on her was at least a little unsettling.

'Then again, am I one to talk?' Daff thought to himself, 'Hey guys, I'm an ex-smuggler who supplied people like the White Fang.' he thought sarcastically already knowing how terrible it made him sound.

It's been a lot to take in, first day at school filled with new knowledge, a team that proved as interesting as they were skilled and his own turmoil to deal with. Daff only now realised just how mentally taxing it was and decided now was a better time than any to take advantage of the soft mattress and protective walls around him.

"If it's alright with you gals, I'm going to call it an early night," the blond bruiser said out loud pulling off his shirt and throwing it on the ground at the end of the bed before laying backwards and pulling the covers over his shirtless form.

"It's not even late, come on!" Misty protested almost indignantly.

"A lot on my mind," Daff said rolling his head slightly in a dismissive manner. He cracked a smile. "You ladies are so interesting it packed my brain too much. Got to rejuvenate the brain before another day goes by." He said the smile never faltering as he gave what was meant to come off as a chuckle-inducing quip.

Misty giggled if only slightly at his comment before shrugging and commenting, "Okay yeah... I'm telling you, though, you better not be an early sleeper on the weekend!" The dark haired girl said warningly despite her smile.

"Duly noted ma'am," Daff said putting his hands under his head and closing his eyes.

A few minutes later and Dia came out of the shower sporting her night wear, dark blue T-shirt and black pants, simple and inelegant. 'Just like the person wearing the outfit.' Misty thought before internally reprimanding herself, she wasn't here to make enemies.

"He already asleep?" Dia asked.

"Yeah he was calling it early, now excuse me, I need to have a shower as well," Misty said sliding her way past her teammate into the bathroom.

Dia for her part climbed up onto her bunk and also decided to call it. The light from the window was slowly dimming and no one had turned the light on so it was easy and despite her own energy levels from not having gotten into any actual physical activity, that day the near death experience that was initiation still wasn't out of her system yet. It aided in her falling asleep before Misty got out of the shower.

About ten minutes later and three out of four of the members of team DAMD were on their way to dreamland, the remaining one; however, Amethyst wasn't so easily taken by sleep. She had slept soundly the night before but someone used to minimal sleep wasn't easily pulled by the call of a comfortable mattress.

No, Amethyst needed to breathe, and that's why at 10 o' clock at night when she was positive the rest of her team was asleep, she got up and ever so silently, went to the door and stepped out. Walking through the halls quietly so as to avoid attracting attention, Amethyst made her way to the locker room, her Faunus night vision allowing her to walk through near pitch black corridors without a light source, surprisingly not running into any professors. She found her way to the locker room, reached for her lock and pulled Midnight Gloom out of the locker. Once the two intricately made gauntlets were on her wrists, the young girl moved her way back to her dorm room and once inside, stepped over to the window, and without even half a second's hesitation, jumped out. Thrusting her fist forwards, the rope of her weapon latched onto the window sill and allowed the girl to slow her descent before finally, her feet touched the ground below.

With the rope reeling its way back to her wrist guard, the purple haired girl looked out at the small city that surrounded Shade and did the one thing she loved to do. She ran. She ran through the empty streets of the town, she threw the blade and pulled herself onto the rooftops and then she ran along them as well. The wind in her ears, both animal and human, was blowing her short hair with it as she heard the whistling of the oxygen moving to let her pass. It was chilly under the shattered moon but above all else, the wind was one thing to Amethyst. It was freedom, and it was something she cherished. This much would be apparent to anyone who managed to see her in the darkness, for despite her usual nature as a calm and collected individual, the face she wore in that moment was alight with a wild smile as she embraced the wind in around her and the darkness above her.

Five minutes of this running went on until finally, Amethyst brought herself to a stop, on top a building on the outside of town. Sitting down, the dark-haired Faunus let her feet dangle off the building as she looked into the fractured moon. The only source of light in this section of the city was the moon, shining down on her like a halo, at least in her mind it did.

The darkness was her home, the darkness protected her. It was her shield, it was her cloak and above all, it was her freedom.

Some would think of the darkness as a force of evil and a method of foreboding but where others saw reason to dread, Amethyst saw reason to accept. The darkness was her liberation and she wouldn't deny this. It was just a fact to her, a fact of her person, nothing more and nothing less.

Yet as she sat there with her legs dangling off a roof and lively emerald eyes gazing into the fractured moon that hung over Remnant, another figure of darkness watched her from afar.

Professor Sang watched the girl run through the town from her office at the top of Shade Academy, using her scroll to zoom in and watch.

"Young Amethyst, you are not one to take your freedom for granted." Vermelia thought aloud as she stepped back and sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

Booting up her computer, Vermelia was intent on finishing the busywork that her job required until she heard a quiet buzzing coming from the scroll she had just put down.

Picking up the device, she pressed the blue answer button on the front before laying the device against a container she had on her desk. The scroll's screen revealed a man with circular glasses, white hair and a green scarf. A man Vermelia was on very good terms with.

"Ozpin," Vermelia said, nonchalantly addressing the man half-heartedly as the holographic screen of her computer also opened up to the paperwork on her student's initiation.

"Vermelia," Ozpin said, "I'd apologise for the late hour,"

"But you know this is the best time to get a hold of me." She said, letting a light smile take hold of her lips.

The two old friends shared a small chuckle at that comment before a serious and sombre tone returned. "I just needed to ask if anything has occurred in Shade of importance," Ozpin said.

"No, Initiation went down without a hitch, though I do have my eye on one team in particular for prowess, they are an odd bunch that all better judgment is telling me will have murdered each other before we ship out for the Vytal Festival." The headmaster of Shade said only half-jokingly.

"I... See," Ozpin said warily. "In any case, has your own mission born any fruit?" Ozpin asked.

"No, wish it had, but I'm as clueless as you are about Ambers condition," Vermelia responded. "I have at least confirmed the Summer Maiden is in good health, she moved through Vacuo recently and all my digging around her led me to believe she's not a target yet."

"I see, thank you for that Vermelia," Ozpin said.

Professor Sang just nodded in acknowledgement, turning away for a few moments. "Shade has been silent as the desert with no wind, Qrow might know more but as it stands, in regards to whatever She's planning, either she's being silent even for me or it's not focused at Shade... yet." She said making sure to stress the last word.

"Indeed, Qrow's findings on his last mission were far from reassuring. Remember to stay safe." Ozpin said.

"I could say the same to you. Old Man," Vermelia responded, "Now I hate to hang up so soon but I need to finish the paperwork on Initiation before the end of the night." She said dismissively.

"Of course, good night Vermelia," Ozpin said.

"Night," Vermelia responded curtly before pressing the red holographic button on her scroll and terminating the call.

The seasoned Huntress had to rub her temples in contemplation after that.

Something was going down and she had to find out what.

And yet with no leads or clues, she couldn't begin hunting, so instead she opted for the second best way to be using her time, finishing her paperwork.

 **A/N - Okay this chapter I was a bit dubious of, nothing really happens though it's just a cliffhanger/ interlude really meant to showcase a few things that'll come up later so my apologies.**

 **On the plus** side **next chapter will be better, promise.**

 **So with that out of the way, remember the Poll on my profile is still up if you'd like to tell me which of my stories deserve the most attention that's the way to do it.**

 **Anyway that's it for today so Next Chapter should be out one the 6th of February**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	9. 1:5 Grits and Wits

Chapter 5

Grits and Wits

Several hours passed. Vermelia wouldn't move from her seat as she typed furiously and Amethyst would alternate between running aimlessly or just sitting and gazing into the darkness. It wasn't until 4 AM did she finally make her way back to the school. Hooking her dagger onto the windowsill of team DAMD's dorm and letting the rope pull her up. Climbing in as quietly as a mouse, she unclipped Midnight Gloom from her wrists, placed them under her bed and climbed under the covers, falling asleep instantly.

The alarm in the room had been set to 7:30 AM, agreed upon by the team thinking an hour and a half to get ready and get food before their first class was more than enough time. One of them, however, was a light sleeper and was woken by the first signs of light outside at 6:45.

Daff pushed himself to a sitting position, having been trained into light sleeping by living outside the kingdoms. Glancing at the clock, the only male of team DAMD figured it would be prudent not to try and get back to sleep, instead getting up, retrieving his shirt from the edge of the bed, throwing it over his head and heading out the door. Early morning workouts were always an appealing thought to the blonde boy, nothing strenuous enough to affect Aura levels but certainly enough to energise him throughout the day. Forty-five minutes before the alarm would off.

Fortunately for Daff, it was only a three-minute walk from team DAMD's dorm to the training room. The door at the beginning of a long hall that led towards the Auditorium opened and Daff looked around with a smile still on his lips. Around him when he entered were no less than two dozen different weight lifting machines. Several bench presses along one wall and a stack of dumbbells along the other, there was another room dedicated to speed training but this was all strength, and for a wake-up workout, that's exactly how the bulky warrior liked it.

Before he could settle on one of the weight lifting machines, Daff heard a groaning noise from where the one handed dumbbells were currently sitting, he turned to see one of his fellow students was also there. He dare say friend, but that would be a stretch, he would be stretching it to say he was friends with his own team, yet still it was the most apt description he had for the tanned skin boy Brwnz Ni from team BRNZ.

"Couldn't get the girls up?" Brawnz asked smiling up at the person who entered. Brawnz having wanted to get a team workout in but had met stiff opposition from all three of his teammates, Nolan and May in particular. So not bothering to fight, at least not yet he opted to come alone.

"No, I didn't try," Daff said, "Team agreed on seven thirty alarm and I just couldn't sleep past the sunrise." He said as he pulled his arms across his chest, stretching out the muscles in his upper arms with the satisfying feeling that was the pull of stiff flesh.

"Can't sleep through the sunrise, you're not from Vacuo are you?" Brawnz asked curiously without missing a beat with his forty pounds one handed dumbbell.

Daff shook his head, "Used to live outside the walls of Mistral, you learn the art of light sleeping real fast out there." He said lying down on one of the bench press and beginning to lift the seventy-five pounds per side that he considered a warm up.

"That far? Not that I'm complaining having a workout buddy, but why would you come here, why not Haven or even Beacon?" The tanned skinned boy asked confused.

If he wasn't busy with his body Daff would have shrugged, "I guess I just wanted to spread my wings a bit, not sure if you know this but the further you get from the main kingdom in Anima, the more cut-throat everything becomes... Vacuo having all that respect for anyone who can survive here, appealing thought." The blonde explained in a half truth, the other half that he didn't mention being the past of Gun Smuggling.

"Not the worst reason I've heard." Brawnz said smiling, "So tell me, think you can bench more than me?"

"Can you bench seven hundred for ten reps?" Daff said.

"Well let's find out!" Brawnz said grinning and putting his dumbbell down.

Time flew by for the two boys in the workout room, so much so that Daff realised too late that 45 minutes had already passed and his teammates would be getting up.

Indeed, the loud buzzing sound invaded the ears of all three girls and with varying degrees of grace, ranging from Amethysts eyes opening calmly, to Misty shooting upwards into a sitting position out of shock, they were all woken up

The ginger haired duelist took a full second to get over her shock before a wild smile took over her face. She jumped down from her bunk and looked around, "Morning!" She said cheerily.

"Morning," Dia sad nonchalantly stretching out her arms above her head and kicking the covers off of her bed.

Amethyst for her part, got to her feet, grabbed some clothes she had laid out for herself the previous night and walked straight towards the washroom, locking the door behind her before anyone could mention anything, her previous night's escapades completely lost on the others and while another person would no doubt feel immense fatigue, Amethyst she either didn't feel it or was masterfully hiding it.

"Hey... Where's Daff?" Misty asked out loud deciding not to bother with the antics of the silent girl of the team.

Dia jumped down from her bunk and looked down into the one below her, sure enough; the male member of team DAMD wasn't there.

She blinked a few times, before shrugging, "Probably out getting breakfast early or something." she said dismissively as she began pulling her white T-shirt over her head.

Misty reached a hand in front of her eyes as the girl's naked chest was revealed. "Sheesh, warning next time?" She said frantically turning away in indignation and slight embarrassment.

Dia refused to dignify that with a response, thinking it to be a normal thing for relative nudity while changing to be a thing, especially considering they were of the same gender.

That argument didn't apply as Dia only just pulled up her dark blue sweat pants when the door opened abruptly and Daff entered the dorm room before realising what was going on.

The bruiser just looked at his leader for a full second and a half, blinking at least a dozen times in that second. Once it had sunk in he quickly slammed the door shut and glared at his team leader. "We have a bathroom!" He said angrily.

The Wolf Faunus had to give the blonde credit on one thing, he was able to keep his eyes on hers as he said it, though he might have enjoyed the view for the split second he had it he kept his eyes away. Whether it be respect for her or pride in his own ability to maintain a gentlemen's approach, either way, he turned his back to her.

"Seriously... We're not just teens in this room; we're training to be warriors. If you two get a weak stomach at the sight of a girl's bare chest then maybe you shouldn't be here!" She exclaimed angrily throwing on her shirt, sliding into her boots and storming out of the room

Amethyst stepped out, fully garbed in her purple shirt, black vest and pants. A much more simple attire than that of her regular combat attire. Stepping out with a look of confusion on her face she looked towards both her teammates, shaking her head to look at the two of them back and forth looking for an answer to what just happend.

"I don't know," Misty said shaking her head, grabbing her clothes and heading for the washroom to get changed.

Daff looked at Amethyst and said. "Well aren't we just the craziest bunch?"

The Silent Girl nodded her head at that before turning her back to her partner and kneeling down to reach under her bed. Reaching her arm out she pulled out what Drecognisedized at once as Amethyst's weapons.

'What are those doing in here?' Daff wondered briefly before dismissing the thought.

About an hour passed between that time and the first class of the day but it wasn't until the three remaining members of team DAMD walked into the classroom for Application of Dust. The classroom itself was similar to all the others only variation being the phials of Dust lining the walls. Dust of every colour imaginable.

The students looked at the Professor standing in front of a desk cluttered with papers and a white board that was currently blank. The teacher, Professor Lapiza Lazul was an… eccentric woman, she had bright blue hair that spiked upwards at every angle at least five inches outwards from her head, wearing a white lab coat with a blue undershirt and a set of energetic green eyes and a wild smile adorning her face.

Some would have been infected by the happiness of this teacher, others terrified of the wicked and energetic nature of her smile and even she would admit both those perspectives were accurate to her being.

A minute before the bell rang and so far it looked as if Dia was the only one there early enough to get a spot in the front row, the seats around her were all filled by the time her teammates and their friends on team BRNZ appeared in the room. Probably to be expected. but in Misty's mind not something to be worried about, her not being here with her meant that she had until the afternoon sparring class before she had to deal with her team leader again.

Professor Lazul leapt from her leaning position the moment the bell rang.

"Welcome students, to your first class of Application of Dust! I'm Professor Lazul and I'll be your teacher!" She said in a shrill but clearly happy voice as she absentmindedly reached behind her and picked up a slightly bruised banana from her desk and began twirling it. "Now, does anyone have any questions for me before I dive right into our first lesson?"

One hand in particular shot into the air, Nolan Porfirio of team BRNZ raised a hand. 'Mr. Porfirio?" Professor Lazul said gesturing to him.

"Ma'am, why haven't you eaten or thrown out that banana yet?" Nolan asked curiously.

"Oh dear, this banana isn't for eating, observe!" And without any other warning, the teacher of Dust Application threw the banana at Nolan like a boomerang. Both he and his partner May ducked their heads to dodge the somehow aerodynamic piece of fruit and both felt a whip of wind on their heads as it flew past them and beginning to head back towards the teacher.

Dia from her seat in the front row raised her hand trying to catch the flying fruit but found her eyes widening in shock as the fruit hit her strong hand and sent her arm downwards towards the desk somehow weighing more than a rock.

The banana flew towards the teacher who as it flew gripped it by the stem and twirled her body with it slamming the opposite end into her desk leaving a large crack as the apparent super fruit was embedded into the wood before stopping.

"What the-?!" Nolan and May exclaimed almost entirely in sync.

"That, children, is what you can do with true mastery over Dust, It was an interesting effect for my work, why I made my new son here only this morning while experimenting with Air and Earth Dust." Professor Lazul said lightly stroking the side of the formerly edible object. "Just goes to show how amazing Dust can be!"

It was at this point that the other two members of team BRNZ shared a look, Roy and Brawnz stared at each other for one second before Brawnz said, "Did she just refer to that fruit as her kid?"

Next second the two joined the rest of the class in looking at the ever cheery teacher and look, half in awe and half in fear of what might be a low tier case of insanity.

"Now then children, let us begin. First and foremost, who can tell me the base forms of Dust?" Professor Lazul asked the class completely indifferent to the odd stares she was receiving.

First, to shake himself out of his shock at this professor's personality Daff raised a hand as he said, "They correspond to the four base elements of the world, Earth, Fire, Water and Air!"

"Indeed, and from these four elements there are secondary elements, for example, Water and Air can be mixed in a natural environment and become lightning Dust." She explained. "Now for you first years, I will be going over the most basic combat applications of your dust, how to better incorporate it into your weapons and several non-combat applications as well, for those of you who go onward I will go over..."

Several students had begun to tune her out at this point, Misty and Daff, in particular, were having a whispered conversation. "You know, Dia's not exactly making herself the most endearing leader," Misty whispered angrily.

"Did you hear her the night after initiation thought? She didn't want that mantle." Daff responded, defending their Wolfish Leader.

"Then let her give it up. I'll take over if it means getting her off that high horse!" Misty retorted.

There was a note of uncertainty to be found that Daff saw instantly, it was clear the Duelist was talking out of anger and she didn't really want to be the leader, she was a fighter not a leader and she clearly knew it. But then again so did Dia, perhaps that was it, Dia was just the least bad decision out of an innately leaderless team, that could be true but on the other and thinking back there is no denying how the girl came through and was the one directing the chaos during initiation, he had heard ever so basic directions from the impromptu leader and together the eight students had made it out of a bind with nothing more than a few scratches. It was a dilemma, so bad for the job yet so good at the same time.

"I don't know, we'll talk to the teachers later." Daff responded, "Now before she notices," and with that the boy gestured to the teacher, indicating that the two better start paying attention to class.

"For you see, the creation of Gravity dust is an inherently flawed creation and has yet to be truly perfected, it is the currently known epitome to Dust and," But this was where the teacher was interrupted by the bell ringing.

"Well that was poorly timed, alright students, be sure to read chapter one of your textbooks before next class, I expect essay's proving you red them on my desk." Professor Lazul said as students began picking up their notebooks and leaving.

Dia for her part, moved as silent as a mouse as she walked out of the classroom, completely ignoring her classmates.

"Good luck Amethyst," Misty said sarcastically discerned the fact that it was her and Daff headed for Field Medicine while the assassin of the team was left to deal with the not so likeable leader

Amethyst nodded silently following her leader, as simple as ever and still without a word.

Dia was just as silent through Field Medicine and by the time classes let out for lunch the leader of team DAMD finally sat down with the rest of her teammates.

"So, finally talking to us?" Misty asked angrily as she sat down across from the team leader with her tray of food, just a simple burger and fries for today.

Said leader nodded whilst picking up her own burger and began eating, one bite in and then she responded, "What's there to talk about, apparently you all are still too immature to be here." Dia said glaring at her partner.

"What are you talking about?" Misty asked begrudgingly trying to get to the bottom of the anger inducing attitude of Dia Sky. The fact that some had the gall to call her cocky when the person leading her team could act so condescendingly was in and of itself, an ironic twist to the saga of this famed duelists retreat from home.

"It's simple; we're here to become warriors fighting the evilest creatures in our world. And somehow you and Aryle still turn green at the sight of the human form." Dia said "I'm here because I wanted to fight, tell me... Why did you want to come here?"

"I wanted to get better," Misty responded. Her palms firmly on the table now as she struggled to keep her own anger in check.

Dia scoffed at that. "Well if you want to get better maybe you should take this school seriously!" she said begrudgingly.

Misty's hands clenched into fists but she knew now was not the time to fight, all that would serve is to do is earn her the ire of the faculty. No, only an hour from now there was the perfect opportunity to wipe that condescension out of her leaders head.

Thus Misty sat back down and plastered a smile on her face, one that Daff saw and found himself getting just a tad bit anxious, expecting the duelist to strike like a cobra at unsuspecting prey. "Okay, Dia," she said simply before biting into her hamburger.

For what it was worth, the two partners sat in silence for the remainder, while the other duo of team DAMD looked on, Daff in concern and Amethyst in silent curiosity. But nothing was said throughout the remainder of lunch.

It wasn't until the last class of the day did anyone on team DAMD speak to another. Sparring class with Professor Sno.

The classroom where Sparring took place was much different; due to the nature of the class this room had several high risers standing several feet above a hardwood floor. The floor itself was slick but not at all slippery and a large spotlight shone down ensuring all attention was brought to that location. Everyone found a seat randomly around the high risers only a minute before the bell rang. Once the bell rang, the Sparring teacher stepped out from a door at the bottom of the room adjacent the risers. The man had grey hair and a short neatly trimmed beard. He wore a white jacket and black undershirt. White pants with several dark grey lines along it and a silver brace along his right knee. The man walked with a black cane that seemed to support his knee.

"Alright kids, I know a bunch of you are excited to finally get a chance to fight your fellow students, so I'll spare the formalities, who wants to go first?" Professor Sno said in an almost disinterested voice.

Several hands shot up but one faster than all others. Misty Blaize.

"Alright Blaize, let's see if we can find you an opponent," Professor Sno said looking down to his scroll.

"Actually Professor," Misty said, "I'd like to issue a challenge."

Professor Sno raised his right eyebrow for a moment before he said "Alright, and who do you wish to destroy miss superstar?" in all all-too sarcastic voice.

"Dia Sky!" Misty said with a voice that dripped determination mixed with anger.

Professor Sno looked over to the white haired girl that the energetic duelist had just challenged, and she looked just a tad surprised but far from unwilling to accept the challenge.

"Alright then, Dia Sky and Misty Blaize, both of you get down here." Professor Sno said. If he noticed the animosity between the two girls he didn't show it. As the armour clad Faunus and the jumpsuit-clad duelist jumped down from the rafters and stepped to opposite ends of the stage, Misty brandished her Dual Matrix outward with the dagger closer to her chest in her right hand. Dia held the Regulus Fangs in a standard dual wielding stance with one blade out in front and the other closer to her core.

"Go," Professor Sno said stepping off to the side.

With the vigour and fury, she had made herself known for the leader of team DAMD, charging forward towards her challenger with her blue mist like energy beginning to form around her body. Balance and grace of a swan and the patience of a turtle, Misty made no motion until her opponent was on her in melee range.

The Regulus Fangs came down from above but met nothing but air as their target sidestepped the strike dodging by barely a centimetre. Next second, the wolfish fighter felt a blunt force hit her square in the face, the hilt of the dagger in Dual Matrix. Barely fazed by the strike, Dia sent a swing at the source only to find once again nothing but oxygen as the target had spun out of melee range.

With a cocky grin on her face, Misty held out her blade tauntingly daring the berserker to continue, like a bull fighter holding the red cape or more accurately like a foolish human holding out a steak tauntingly towards a hungry wolf. A wolf ready to strike and kill for its next meal.

With a swift flick of her wrists, Dia transformed her swords into their shotgun form and took a shot from each of her weapons towards Misty, one right after the other. Eyes a dark shamrock green, however, indicated the duelist saw this attack coming with the power of her Intuitive Eye, leading to the complete dodging of the attacks and the swift movement closing the distance between the two of them once again.

Clang went the swords as the Regulus Fangs banged against the sharpened edge of the Dual Matrix and in the blink of an eye; the much lither fighter was pushed to the back foot. A barrage of swings and slashes from the dual bladed fighter kept her moving backwards.

The victory was within reach, Atlas' best pre-huntsman duelist was no match for the Vacuo raised fighter, not in the way of speed and brawn went. Just like their kingdoms, however, the advantages of physical prowess were trumped by the mind and this fact became evident as one particularly vicious swing of both swords at once left an exposed lower body to which the would-be wounded opponent took full advantage of.

A fluent movement that would later be watched in slow motion to fully comprehend, Misty ducked around the strikes and in the same movement, spun around and kicked Dia in the back of the knee, outside her defences.

Staggering forward, the wolfish girl couldn't move fast enough to block as the focused attack didn't end, leading to a full slice along Dia's back and two dust rounds to hit her in the back of the head as she got to her feet.

A buzzer went off, a buzzer that signified many things to these two girls, humiliation, defeat, victory, a sense of accomplishment, many thoughts went on in the heads of these fighters but it didn't change the fact, Misty Blaize had won the duel.

"So, you off that high horse yet?!" Misty asked, allowing a smirk onto her lips as Dia got to her feet and sheathed her swords on her back.

Dia glared at her teammate before nodding her head, "Yeah, you're good." she said before walking back up to the rafters. "Professor, may I go and get some water?" Dia asked.

"Yeah sure," Professor Sno said indifferently not even looking up as he wrote something on his scroll.

Dia didn't waste any time as she walked out of the class just in time to not hear who Amethyst was going to be fighting.

The young Faunus warrior walked through the halls, sure the teacher wouldn't care if she was gone for longer than expected, she wasn't going to be fighting again this class with her Aura so low, and taking at least an hour to recover, so instead she just walked aimlessly through the halls. Anger filling her head, anger at Misty for being so insufferably cocky, anger at herself for losing what should have been an easy match, angry at the school for sticking her with a team she was beginning to show disdain for and above all, anger at the headmaster for making her the leader of this insufferable band of children.

"So I take it Sno let you out early?" Came a calm feminine voice from behind Dia. The girl looked around to see a black-clad woman with red hair, the one she had just been thinking about, Professor Vermelia Sang, Headmaster of Shade academy. "Come, let's walk," she said calmly gesturing for the girl to follow.

Vermelia didn't take three steps before she turned and as neutral as ever said, "Anger is coming off of you in waves dear, whether it is warranted or not we have yet to see, but considering I haven't dragged you to detention for skipping your sparring class, you must know I have no intention of getting mad at you over whatever is on your mind."

"Why did you make me leader!?" Dia blurted out bitterly, "I can't lead them, I'm a lone wolf, I can barely take orders, teams were meant to be a necessary evil for this damn school, not the one thing that hinders my own learning!"

Professor Sang nodded solemnly, "Well to tell you the truth, I had to make the best of a very bad situation." she said. "Tell me, who should lead your team if not you?"

"Misty!" Dia said at once,

"Blaize? The girl's experience is in single combat, she hasn't experienced conflict requiring the spatial awareness a leader must possess."

"Daff!" She tried to counter

"Aryle? The boy is so light spoken he'd be too concerned by if others agree with him wholeheartedly to give an order on the battlefield," Sang said in the almost practised speech of someone who'd expected all of this.

"Amethyst!" Dia said, desperation falling into her voice as a part of her mind told her this was the least possible opportunity even if she herself didn't want to acknowledge it.

"Perla? The girl can't even talk." Vermelia responded surprisingly with a lack of exasperation in her voice, rather a calm and neutral tone as if to say she was just waiting for the opportunity to start interjecting once all the bases were covered.

The wolf Faunus pursed her lips and grit her teeth angrily, this professor made too much sense and it was starting to drive her mental.

A moment of silence, it could have been an eternity but really it was just under a minute until finally, the Huntress in Training spoke. "So what... I was the last resort?"

"I don't know, are you?" Professor Sang asked, "You could think you are the last resort, my last ditch effort to throw someone not incompetent into the role, or you can prove that the last resort was, in fact, a solid decision."

Dia was silent at this so Professor Sang just finished her statement, "The choice is yours." She finished before walking away, "Think about it, Professor Sno won't care if you don't return." And then without waiting for a response, Professor Sang walked away before the young warrior could even register that she had left.

Not even thinking about it, Dia sat down on a nearby bench thinking about what the headmaster had said. She was on a team of misfits and at least one of them royally ticked her off.

She'd always been a lone wolf; she'd always preferred living by her own blade. But it was going to happen one way or another, she knew, somewhere in the back of her head she had always known she'd need to team up with other warriors.

"Worst case scenario, these idiots go down with me," Dia mumbled to herself as she got to her feet after her five minutes of contemplation and headed back to her dorm room.

Since sparring class usually only had people fighting once per class, Misty had zoned out throughout the rest of the lesson She had no idea what she wanted to prove by fighting her leader, maybe to prove she did belong here, maybe just to wipe that condescension out of the girl's mind, maybe she just wanted to fight. Whatever the reason, she knew after only a minute out of the arena she had acted way out of line; she had shown arrogance and had treated her opponent as something, not her equal but something to be looked down the nose at.

It was a thought that made her feel disgusted at herself for feeling

'I messed up.' Misty thought to herself shamefully, she had completely renounced her own battle code; she had let anger get the best of her and all because of a little snark.

It felt like an eternity to the duelist but finally, the loud bell rang and the class was over.

"Alright troublemakers, go get that homework done." Professor Sno said indifferently as he watched the students exit the room.

Misty looking down, her mind still lost in shame at her actions, was joined just outside the room by Amethyst and Daff both of whom had been too busy watching the rest of the fights to notice the girl's plight during class.

"You okay?" Daff asked, concern undeniably genuine as he placed a hand on Misty's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to talk to Dia." she responded, beginning to speed walk her way towards the dorms.

Daff looked to his partner and said, "Looks like a full team talk is about to break loose, come on!" And with that, the two followed suit behind their comrade.

It was only about three minutes speed walking from the Class to their dorm.

Barging into the room, Misty scanned the dormitory and found Dia sitting on the bottom bunk on the right of the room, she looked up just in time to hear the girl go off and say, "Dia, I'm..."

The pink haired duelist would have gone on rambling had the wolf faunus not raised a hand forcefully, calling for silence.

"Misty, I'm sorry," Dia said in a way that said plain and clear she wanted to say it but the concept was at least somewhat foreign to her, clearly apologizing or having to do so was new to her. "I acted completely out of line and managed to push away from my mind the fact that you all survived initiation just like I did. I've lived by my own blade for a long time and wasn't ready to even join a team, let alone lead it, and I was taking it out on you guys." Dia said looking up at the three people in the room with her now, her sky blue eyes looking between all three of them, these words couldn't have been more from the heart if tears welled up and she collapsed to her knees.

No one on team DAMD would ask that of her, quite the contrary, "Actually, Dia, I wanted to apologize, I was lost my cool today, I don't know if I wanted to humiliate you, prove myself a warrior to you or just knock you on your backside, but my behavior towards you this afternoon was way out of line. So... I'm sorry." Misty said allowing her lilac eyes to meet her leader's blue ones.

Dia blinked a few times trying to process this. Misty thought she was out of line with that challenge? The thought made her chuckle and almost burst out laughing.

"Don't worry about it, we both acted childishly, so what's say you, all of you, to a fresh start?" Dia asked.

"Do you even need to ask?" Both Daff and Misty asked in complete and total unison.

Dia chuckled once more. "Alright then, as the hopefully improved leader of Team DAMD, my first order of business... that essay for the crazy and probably insane, professor Lazul!"

 **A/N -Okay I promised this on Monday and now it's Friday, I'm sorry for that, see things got crazy for me so I had to put this back a bit. So from now on I'll restrict this posting to Fridays, that way I've got time to get other non-sense dealt with that might come up.**

 **Anyway with that out of the way, this chapter, well I'm really happy about this one, unlike last one I think we can all safely say things happened. not least of which my favourite teacher to write about was introduced, originally just based on a dare from my local NaNoWriMo organizer to feature a "Son that is a banana" in some way and it spiralled into Lapiza.**

 **Anyway as always your thoughts are always appreciated, both in reviews and on the poll on my Profile**

 **Until Next time Ashbringer36 Out**

 **Next Chapter : February 17th (Friday)**


	10. 1:6 Royal Will

Chapter 7

Royal Will

Two weeks had passed since the Initiation and with the weekend coming up there was one more class to get through. For the first years it was sparring class with Professor Sno. The young hunters in training were watching what was clearly going to be the last match of the day. May Zedong, armed with her sniper rifle, was facing off against her team leader Brawnz Ni.

They stood roughly twenty feet apart and surrounded by the protective dome. It was far from the sniper's ideal targeting ground but, as her team had discovered during their group training exercises, May was far from incapable in melee combat despite her lacking physical strength. She carried herself with the confidence of a Huntress just as her leader cocked his fists and revealed the blades in his gloves.

"Alright kids, and... Go!" Was the last thing either student heard before they let their fighter's instincts take hold of their minds. Brawnz knew first hand that he had to get in close or he'd be done for. May brought her rifle to her right eye, knelt and began shooting.

Running at an angle, the dark haired brawler spun around and threw a knife from his glove at May, forcing her to summersault away to dodge. Her opponent took the opportunity to lunge forward and force her to block an incoming downward punch with the end of her rifle.

Out of the butt of the gun, an axe blade was swiftly deployed and swung but dodged and in the process, May was barely able to back step in time to dodge another punch. However, in stepping backwards May's head fell towards the left and Brawnz's right fist was out of sight of the one eye she had hidden under her cap. Without even seeing it, one claw enhanced punch hit her right in the side of the head.

The blow sent her spiralling downward and a loud buzzer to go off as she landed on her stomach just on top of her rifle.

"What, but she's still got a ton of Aura!" Brawnz exclaimed angrily having reacted to the buzzer before May even had a chance to comprehend what had happened.

"Two things Mr. Ni; one, she was disoriented and you would have had more than enough time to dive while she was down, secondly, the bell's about to ring and since it's Friday I can't be bothered to deal with you brats any longer than I'm required to... Now," he raised his hand into the air just as the bell rang, "Have a pleasant weekend."

With a significant amount of chatter coming from the students, no one hesitated in getting out of class and with the white noise of clambering chairs and chatting students in the ears, May didn't even register that Brawnz was holding out a hand to her, her eye instead fixated on the screen above the domed arena which did indeed clearly show she had just over 76 percent of her Aura left.

"May!" Brawnz said, getting the girl's attention. Looking up she saw a hand outstretched to her. She nodded and held out her hand letting him pull her to her feet.

Meeting up with Nolan and Roy, team BRNZ began walking back to the locker rooms to deposit their weapons for the day and though Roy and Nolan were talking amicably with each other smiles on their faces, Brawnz had a frown that suggested both concern and a bit of anger.

"May... Why do you wear that over your eye?" he asked angrily, "You missed me in that fight because you created a blind spot!'

There was a click in that moment within the mind of the young sniper. This click was one that came out of nowhere, at least nowhere in the minds of her team, yet one with the fury of a struck nerve and a very defensive part of her spirit. Thus May spun around, her uncovered eye glaring with a hurt and rage as her teeth clenched so hard some might think shards were about to start coming from them as she spat, "You don't think I know that?!"

Brawnz took a step back caught completely off guard by the way his teammate had reacted and even Roy and Nolan jumped a little at this.

With a stride in her step that did nothing to hide her apparent anger, May turned around and continued walking albeit with a significant amount more stomp to her step.

"May!" Nolan yelled, but the sniper was having none of it and before any of the team knew it she was lost in the throngs of students in the halls.

"Well that's uh... Great." Brawnz said shaking his head slightly to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Let her be," Nolan said, "Looks like you struck a nerve, we'll ask what that nerve was when she's calmed down." he surmised. Though they hadn't known each other for long, May and Nolan had gotten quite close over the last two weeks, having already begun practicing coordinating for team attacks on their own. He had spent enough time with her to know May Zedong was one girl who didn't go off like that over anything. At least, that's what he thought, he never was that great at reading people, being from a small town outside the larger city around Shade that was Vacuo.

Everything was straight forward back then and he discovered as he came to Shade that emotions could be a lot more complicated than the simplicity of the survivalist's lifestyle.

May for her part, decided against putting her things away, instead, she opted for a trip to the firing range for practice; her favorite pastime was to spend time with her best friend, her own rifle.

Though the activity itself wasn't very taxing and her mind wasn't completely in it, still, the intermediate settings for the holographic targets were so easy for the sniper that she was able to hit them and still let her mind wander elsewhere.

Of course, she knew about the blind spot, it had been with her long before coming to Shade, long before any of it. May had never learned the cause of it but for reasons, only genetics can explain she was blind in her left eye. Rather, the eye wasn't even there, only a hole where an eye should have been but sealed with skin that grew there instead.

Ironic that she would pick one of the most vision centric weapons in the world and she herself was blind in one of her eyes.

May had been lucky to survive. Though she was as skilled as any other girl who took their Vacuo upbringing beyond pragmatism, as was the case with most of those in Shade, but the fact she had such a broad weakness as to have half her line of sight be gone was one she had still yet to adapt to. Though she hid it under her cap, an act of bravado making it seem as if she didn't need the eye, the fact remained that she was missing something from her toolkit and it was far from a simple screw, it was more like the hilt of the hammer.

Ever lost in thought, when she finally pulled her rifle back into ready position she turned around only to bump right into another person readying to leave the room.

The two girls took a few steps back to steady themselves before looking up towards each other. The girl May had run into was clad in a purple coat with a gray undershirt, dark indigo hair with bright friendly olive green eyes.

"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention," May said apologetically.

"It's alright, no harm done," The girl said smiling, "Name's Nebula by the way." She said, the cheery smile never leaving.

The cheeriness of this girl was infectious apparently because May found herself smiling as she said "May." Holding her hand out as well.

The two girls shook hands and before they knew it, the two of them were walking side by side towards the locker room, Nebula to put away the crossbow she had been practising with and May did the same with her sniper rifle.

"So May, you seem troubled by something, need anyone to talk to?" Nebula asked.

"It's nothing, just... something I have to talk to my team about." May said shaking her head. "They... hit a nerve with me earlier, one they didn't know was there and I yelled at them."

"Oh dear, well I'm sure they'll understand if you explain it to them." Nebula said as she opened the door to the locker room and held it open for the shorter girl.

May nodded apprehensively, "I hope so... I just, I feel so awful." May admitted.

"Well that's a good sign," Nebula said, "Last time I argued with my partner Dew, it took us both two days to come around and talk it out, so if you're already ready then... Well, it's a good start." Nebula admitted as she walked to her locker and lightly put her crossbow down inside it while her new compatriot did the same with her rifle.

"I know, thank you," May said looking away, of course, Nebula didn't know the whole story, though she could easily apologise for snapping, the reason for her snapping remained, her disability made her feel weak and weakness was something unfit for a Huntress. She had to fight through it somehow, but that still made her one unhappy marksman.

"Anyway, I better go, the essays that Rain gives out for second years are unreal." Nebula admitted, "Perhaps we'll run into each other again... figuratively at least." Nebula said smiling.

"Of course," She said plastering a smile on her face while the crossbow wielding second-year nodded and left.

May sighed to herself and after making sure her locker was perfectly sealed she headed towards her dorm room, hoping her team was still there so she could apologise to them for her uncharacteristically angry outburst.

Fortunately for the sniper, her team had all agreed that the dorm room was a better place to study than the library, half because they knew May would be returning at some point soon, and the other half because they knew they couldn't get any work done if their sister team were to appear and decide the same thing. Studying as four can work, but studying as eight, especially with Dia and Daff among them combined with Roy's and Brawnz's strained ability to sit still as is would lead to, at best, a considerably lacking amount of completed work.

And thus, Nolan laying on his top bunk, Brawnz sprawled on his back on the floor in the middle and Roy at the desk, all of whom sprawled over books for Dust Application. Professor Lazul having stressed that these three chapters on the basics were the only part she'd teach from the textbook but that the basics were best left unchanged for first years.

One of the more sensible things that Professor Lazul had said to all of them and definitely the easiest thing to understand the first time around.

Yet all three heads went upwards towards the door as it was slowly opened. A loud creaking sound caught their attention as the purple haired sniper peeked her head in before slowly walking the rest of the way inside. She was worried about the responses of her teammates and she would not only be shocked if they were angry. She was, in fact, expecting a poor response.

The last thing she expected was the empathetic smile on Nolan's face as he jumped down from his bunk and stood in front of her and asked, "You up to telling us what happened?"

"I... yeah, I'm sorry guys. I lost my head and it wasn't cool." May explained, looking away.

The purple haired sniper felt a hand on her shoulder putting a comforting pressure on it. She looked up and saw the dark eyes of Nolan gazing into her own eye. "You don't go off like that without reason May. So, what's the problem?"

May took one really deep breath, 'Now or never,' she thought as she reached her hands up to her head and pulled her took off her head. Revealing the place where her left eye should have been. The malformity that she hid. "My blind spot isn't a choice," she said with an ever so slight undertone of bitterness.

"Woah," Brawnz said uncertainly as he found himself staring the non-existent pupil. Even the calm Roy did a double take on the sight on the girls face.

"I hate being weak, I'm not that strong, which is why I learned to shoot in the first place, and a missing eye is just one more weakness to compensate for," May said, pursing her lips and feeling a few tears begin to grace her tear ducts.

Nolan's hand had never left her shoulder; to the contrary he pulled her inwards and wrapped his arm around her back, "I'm going to smack you the next time I hear you refer to yourself as weak." Nolan said dangerously, "You got into the academy, which speaks volumes of what you can do, with or without your eye."

May pursed her lips and blinked those unfallen tears from her eyes as the comforting embrace of her partner took hold.

"It just means we need to spend some time training to protect the blind side." Brawnz smiled, getting to his feet and standing between the two partners, "Could be fun, give us all a reason to train with our other senses."

At this point May was smiling, despite the shining streaks on her cheeks indicating the fallen tears, "I... you guys are awesome!" May said.

"I know," Nolan said putting his arms behind his head with a smirk that was nothing short of full blown cheekiness.

May lightly punched her partner in the chest at this but she had no argument or any other retort at this time.

The feeling of relief coursing through May at this point was indescribable to her, she felt... Safe, her friends knew about her shortcomings and they were not only refraining from looking at her differently but were ready to help her train around it. Even her own parents had treated it as a reason to protect her fervently as fragile. It was a great feeling, standing beside her fellow warriors as an equal despite her disability and there was no denying the one thought in the sniper's head.

 _"This was a feeling she could get used to!"_

 **A/N - So yeah, I hope this chapter dosen't get hated like the Jaune Dice arc got hated back at the beginning.**

 **So yeah I've got a few chapters planned for team BRNZ, hoping to make them at least somewhat relevant to the story because I actually found them quite interesting. maybe because I liked the style or maybe because of all the headcanon I came up with like this chapters events.**

 **Anyway remember the poll, if you want to see this story be my focus be sure to vote, and as always I'll see you all next** friday

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	11. 1:7 Give and Take

Chapter 8

Give and Take

"I swear to Oum, this thing is going to be the death of me." Were the words echoing through the Weapon Forge of Shade Academy.

The Forge was a spacious room with numerous grindstones and workbenches lining the walls, shelves stocked with all sorts of tools and vials of dust. There was a smelter in the middle of the room surrounded by several buckets of water, oil and anvils. Filled with the smell of smoke and heat with a faint tinge of sweat, there was no doubt this was a room of creation. Creation of the mechanisms of combat and destruction, but creation nonetheless.

The breakfast rush of 9:30 was in full swing several halls and floors away thus for a time leaving the forge to a single occupant, Nolan of team BRNZ.

The young man was in front of a workbench with his weapon in front of him, a screwdriver and a pair of pliers in his hands. The hilt of the weapon was open revealing a complex contraption with several wires connected to a yellow crystal. Some of the wires that connected to the jewel-like item had been knocked loose during sparring the previous day and how Nolan had to fix it ASAP, considering that unlike his friend's weapons his was useless without dust. Even his partner, the sniper of the team had a function to use her rifle as a melee weapon without dust.

Edel Herz, the cattle prod, possibly the most ineffective weapon one could imagine for killing Grimm, but ultimately it was all the boy could get his hands on. Moisture farmer turned Huntsman in training, there wasn't all that much in the way of weapons on the farm, a few modifications however to the tool was all it had taken to give the weapon enough kick to incapacitate Grimm, at least enough for other methods of attack.

"And... got it!" Nolan said proudly as he took a step back, a wild grin on his face as he closed the opening to the inner workings of his weapon. Picking up the prod he flicked it once and smiled at the satisfying buzz and crackle of the electric energy. If there is one thing that Professor Lazul would ever say that was undeniable, it was her praise of Dust and all the possibilities the elements provided.

"Hey Nolan," Came a cheerful voice from the door accompanied by the creaking of said door opening. Nolan turned and saw clad in her usual pink casual wear was Misty, a member of BRNZ's sister team DAMD. Holding her sword, the Dual Matrix, in hand she walked towards the grindstone and with the stone now moving the bladed edge of the weapon was leant against the moving rock, sparks coming off as the edge was refined.

"Good to know I'm not the only one who holds weapon maintenance in high regard." Misty smiled, her eyes not wavering from the task at hand.

"I mean, it's a pain in the rear, but Edel Herz is the only thing I've got," Nolan commented brandishing the lengthy blunt weapon a bit.

There was a single moment, the sparks ceased and a smile vanished replaced by a scowl. Slowly and distinctly, Misty moved her head, brown looking directly into pink. "Did you really, just talk about your weapon as a burden?" She said indignation dripping from every syllable.

Nolan was taken aback but nodded ever so slightly. "It's just... It's improvised and..." The dark haired huntsman began only to be cut off by a stern almost angry huntress.

"Edel Herz, is your weapon, you take it into battle and it's the first line of defense you have even before your Aura. I can understand if there is a problem that needs to be fixed but the absolute essential thing when starting that process, is respect for the weapon." She ranted, a glare in her eye resembling that of a scolding mother or someone with wisdom.

Nolan blinked a few times, "Okay... Aren't you supposed to be the sweet one on your team?" Nolan asked, a crack at humor in an attempt to split the tension that had been built up by the professional fighter.

As quickly as it had gone the smile returned, "Yeah, sorry, just something I learned from my mom, she drilled the respect for your weapon into my mind thoroughly while we forged mine." she said apologetically.

"I got you," Nolan said nodding as he looked down at his armament. "Still, every match the wires come apart, that's not going to work while on the field."

Misty her light smile still evident placed a hand on her chin in contemplation, "I take it there are wires going from a Dust Crystal into the rest of the weapon yeah? Maybe Lazul could help." Misty thought aloud, "She does seem to know what she's doing with Dust after all."

Nolan nodded, a wide and genuine smile going over his face, the best idea he'd heard in a long time, completely boggled his mind how he didn't think of it. No that was wrong, he knew exactly why he didn't think to ask Professor Lazul about the weapon and that was his basic knowledge of Dust telling him it was fine. The mad scientist woman surely could spot something in the crystal, a piece the former farmer took for granted.

A curt nod was all Misty gave as she turned to the grindstone, "Glad to help, now I need to get back to Dual Matrix, she isn't going to sharpen herself after all."

Nolan nodded, "Alright, catch you later Misty," he said with a wave as he left the room.

Whilst the duelist and the farmhand were talking, several floors up in the cafeteria, the other six members of the sister teams were all getting breakfast, though an air of ease permeated through the gathered companions, there was still one among them who wanted a serious conversation.

Brawnz looked around at the assembled group and cleared his throat in an attempt to get their attention. It took a second for May and Daff to stop talking, but a light swat from Dia silenced the two.

"Alright, so I've been thinking, we need to create a team training schedules." Brawnz suggested, "If we want to qualify to travel to Vale."

"Scheduled? What?" May asked looking at her team leader as if he'd grown a second head, "I mean... good idea but how often we talking?'

"I was thinking five or six two and a half hour sessions a week," Brawnz suggested.

A loud coughing accompanied this statement; Daff who had been taking a drink keeled over and began coughing a violent cough as he accidently inhaled the liquid in shock. Slamming a fist into his chest in a loud and to an outsider who didn't know the cup had been in hand very much exaggerated display of horror.

Finally, after a few seconds, the fluid was gone the blonde boy turned to the pink-clad fighter who had suggested the training and said, "Have you met our teachers? Professor Rain alone is taking up an hour and a half of our nights for homework."

The exasperation was dripping from Brawnz's next statement, "Are you for real? I'm talking about representing the school to the rest of Remnant and you're worried about homework?"

"Not homework," Daff said a soft smile merging onto his face as he said, "It's the lack of free time I'm concerned about."

There was a full minute of silence; the tension was palpable as hazel eyes met violet. Dia and May both took to switching their heads between the two staring off and Amethyst's cat ears perked up in curiosity and apprehension.

"Alright Brawnz, relax man," Roy said putting a hand on his partner's shoulder. The gesture was followed by a deep breath from the recipient as he nodded and let his eyes soften once again.

"Brawnz, you know I agree with you, but Daff is at least sort of right," Dia said, "There is a point where we draw a line on what's non-negotiable," she said if only slightly imploringly.

"Ha, see, even the hard case herself agrees with me!" Daff said excitedly with a wild smile and a glimmer of victory in his eye, only to be snuffed out by his team leader turning her head to face him with lowered eyebrows, a disappointed look non-verbally saying a single word, "really?"

"In any case," Roy said getting everyone's attention with a firm but calm tone of voice, "We're missing two people, let's talk about this as a full group at least shall we?"

"Where is Nolan anyway?" Brawnz asked, looking around.

"Down at the Forge, he had to fix up Edel Herz," May responded.

"Edel Herz?" Brawnz asked raising his eyebrow in confusion, "You mean his cattle prod?"

"Yeah, it's what he named it," May said shrugging.

"Named... the weapon?" Brawnz asked.

It was at this moment that both Daff and Dia smacked their own faces and left their hands there, a facepalm for their friend's daftness.

'Oh, the words Misty is going to have for him when she hears that.' Daff thought with a shake of his head.

Whilst this conversation went on, Nolan finally reached his way to the classroom where Applications of Dust were held and found that the door was left ajar if only slightly. Knocking ever so tentatively, Nolan was greeted with a hearty and energetic voice yelling up at the doorway "Come in!"

Walking into the room, the blue-clad boy was met with the sight of the professor sitting at her desk with several vials of dust in front of her.

"Oh uh, Professor, I was hoping to ask you a question." Nolan said tentatively as he walked down with his weapon still sheathed beside him. A bit nervous, half because of the ridiculousness of the circumstances and embarrassment at his weapon's current position, the other half just apprehensiveness at Lazul in general.

"Of course young man, I'm always here to share my knowledge!" She exclaimed proudly.

"Alright well I've got a bit of a problem here, see," Nolan began pulling out Edel Hertz from his side and revealing the crystal housed in the hilt. "The wires keep coming apart and well... I thought it might be a problem with the crystal since it's the only thing I..." He continued but was cut off as Lazul looked down her eyes gazing into only the shard of Dust before her.

"Lightning Dust shard, but flawed and imperfect, hence unable to keep its charge. My boy, I'm sorry but this weapon is on a downward spiral." She explained, "See, these cracks along here are imperfections which make the crystal slowly deteriorate and produce less and less energy."

That did make sense, the crystal hadn't been changed since it was first placed in the young man's hands several years ago, if Dust really did have a limit to the amount of energy it could maintain then this one should be running out by now.

"Now," she said, "Fortunately for both of us, I need an imperfect shard for an experiment I have planned!" The blue-clad professor smiled as she got to her feet and walked towards a cabinet on the right side of the room. She pulled open the drawer and revealed a yellow shard, almost identical in shape to the one in Nolan's weapon. "Trade you?"

There was a pang of guilt in Nolan's chest, the professor was just giving away a Dust Crystal to him, pride or just a kind of personal guilt, something or another inside the boy's mind was telling him it was a bad gesture to take it.

'No, she told you she could use yours, it's not taking, it's a trade.' Nolan reminded himself of his teacher's words as he disconnected the crystal from his weapon and handed the so-called imperfect diamond to the woman who likewise handed him the more recent one.

"Hey Professor, what exactly do you need an imperfect Dust crystal for?" He asked a note of curiosity in his voice.

"I'm hoping to find out if the tears in the structure of the gem contain the element in explosions and whether or not the X=EF equation of Dust ordinance is effected by the solidarity of the G factor." Lazul explained simply.

Nolan gave a nod, "I see, alright, well, see you next class, Professor," He said before walking out.

"I swear she made all that up on the spot." He mumbled looking downwards towards his weapon and the new found power source his teacher had given him.

A smile mixed with a frown in the strangest of ways. Happy that he might have figured out and solved a critical problem with his weapon and a bit confused and slightly angered at accepting charity.

'No, it wasn't charity it was a trade.' Nolan chastised himself again, however hard it was to remember that given how uneven the trade seemed in the boy's mind, it was what he had to remind himself. Give and take, that's how it all goes after all.

The blue-clad huntsman in training walked through the halls for several minutes, heading for his dorm room in hopes of seeing the rest of his friends before going down to install his newfound energy source for his weapon. When the door opened, however, he found several eyes trained on him.

Brawnz had been standing in the middle of the room with a projected screen in front of him and a calendar.

One look into May's eyes was all it took for Nolan to get what was going on.

"Oh dear Oum," Nolan said, shaking his head realizing at once he was in for a lecture or something similar.

 **A/N - Sorry for the day late, kind of got carried away with the extra shifts at work I was given and waited until the last minute to start writing this.**

 **In any case we have us another chapter, next chapter should be a bit more fun so keep an eye open for that. We're only a handful (two or three) Chapters away from the end of the first arc, and then we'll start seeing some real action occur.**

 **In any case I'll see you all next Friday**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	12. 1:8 Withering Labyrinth

Chapter 9

Withering Labyrinth.

Dark and empty. Two words to describe the entrance to the old mine shaft out two miles from Shade Academy. Surrounded by a pit that made up another abandoned quarry, it is the only reason the entrance to the tunnel hadn't been covered by sandstorms at this point. Out in front of this hole, a white painted airship was positioned with its engines whirring to a standstill, with an envoy of students and one teacher walking out of the side of the aircraft.

Professor Rain garbed in her usual gold and blue outfit was leading the envoy of students. Six teams, including teams DAMD and BRNZ.

"Now class, Professor Lazul requested a small dust sample from the depths of this mine. It need only be a small one, but she made certain to stress that those of you who brought the most worthwhile samples would get a bonus mark on her next essay." Professor Rain said as the collection of students stood before her just at the entrance to the mine.

"Now rest assured, the mine is perfectly stable, but Grimm will be down there and I would recommend against the use of explosive weapons." Professor Rain continued her eyes resting for a moment on Dia and Daff.

"Woah hey, give us a little credit, Professor," Daff said as he absentmindedly reached his hand behind him and gripped Solar Justice by the hilt.

"Be that as it may, you have roughly four hours down there, I will be walking among you to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong, but other than that the day is yours, so get going!"

No one had to be told twice, several teams ran straight into the mine shaft, however, Dia and Brawnz kept their teams back. "Let's not get trampled shall we?" The white haired Faunus asked with a resounding nod of approval from her three teammates.

"Okay, so what do you guys think, where should we go?" Brawnz asked as they began walking far more calmly than their fellows into the mine shaft.

There was a brief moment of silence among the eight friends, a silence that was broken when Roy decided to speak up.

"This mine was abandoned due to lack of real dust deposits, just small fragments left not worth harvesting on a massive scale, however back when it was running, it only seemed to get thicker the further down you went," Roy explained, displaying a significant knowledge of the mining operations from back when they were going on. "So the further down we go the more likely we are to find things we need."

"Well then, best get going, those extra marks are ours!" Nolan grinned, sharing a high-five with Daff who was the closest person to him.

The mine itself wasn't lit; instead, everyone was using flashlights they had been given on the airship to find their way around. All except two of them, Dia and Amethyst had taken the lead as both girls' Faunus heritage granted them night vision. Because of this, neither of them had even bothered igniting their flashlights and yet were still leading the large.

A few minutes of walking past where students intended on trying to find samples closer to the entrance until finally, they came to a splitting road.

"What do you guys say, we split up? Groups of four?" May asked aloud to the large group.

"Well, it'd be a good idea if each group had one of our feline friends to help keep us from running into things," Nolan responded with a grin as he nodded towards the black-clad cat Faunus and blue clad wolf Faunus. The grin could have been described as arrogant or joking and neither would have been completely wrong yet neither would be right either. Nolan for all the rudeness with his comment it was still meant in good fun.

Amethyst and Dia both shared a glance with the former giving a shrug, clearly indicating she wasn't offended in the least bit by that comment, followed by a nod of her head to say it was a good idea.

Once this message was given the leader of team DAMD turned her head and walked straight towards Nolan with an angry stride in her step. Leaning in towards his head angrily getting in his face she said: "For the record," Nolan didn't know what to do, frozen in fear at the possible retribution headed his way. Dia's white wolf tail flicked upwards so the end was just behind her head. "I'm a canine, big difference!" She finished stepping back and replacing her scowl with a smile.

A full second passed before several shrieks of laughter took hold of the darkened path as Daff, Misty and Brawnz all burst out laughing at the clearly terrified look on Nolan's face, even his partner May couldn't hold back a few giggles at the whole ordeal. It was rather humiliating to the blue-clad brawler, but it was something he could shake off. Or at least, shake off once his friends let him do so.

"Okay, now that we got our laughing done I think Nolan's idea is a good one," Daff said bringing his hand to his face and making a hand motion to literally wipe the grin off his face.

Dia nodded to her teammate before turning to the members of team BRNZ "Alright, let's keep it simple then, trade leaders for this mission?" She proposed.

Brawnz let a grin that was almost an evil smirk take hold of his features as he held out a fist which his fellow leader bumped with her own. All the while he said, "Don't drill them too hard!"

"I won't," Dia said shrugging. "Alright now, enough waiting around, let's go."

With that the two groups were off, Brawnz, Daff, Amethyst and Misty down the path to the right, with Dia, May, Nolan and Roy going down the other.

Just barely five minutes later and Brawnz, despite being the impromptu leader of this group, seemed to be moving at the back with Misty while Amethyst with her night vision led the group with Daff right beside her, a flashlight in hand.

A part of the brawler's mind urged him to ask if those two were an item, but his own pride held him back. No need to go snooping around in any business like that. It would have been petty and juvenile to ask about romance, at least in the mind of the tan skinned brawler, so instead he opted to ask Misty something else.

"So how's Dia as a leader?" He asked.

"Well, after the first few days we hashed out some dirty laundry and since then she's been as chill as Atlas. Why do you ask?" she asked with her flashlight in one hand and her sword in the other, though she was ready, she wasn't completely attentive, or she was and was just really good at multi-tasking in her head. Both answers were equally likely in his mind.

"Well I mean, I've been acquainted with Dia for some time, I had a hard time picturing her as the leading type," Brawnz admitted.

Misty was about to speak but before her lips even opened Daff chose this moment to chime in his opinion. "I'll be honest... When it comes to leadership there's a part of me that thinks Professor Sang either chose the shiniest non-leader or just picked whoever was at the front of the easiest acronym to find." He said turning his head back to the two.

"Pretty much what he said, yeah," Misty exclaimed, giving an appreciative nod to her teammate who nodded in response.

Amethyst remained as silent as ever throughout this, something that didn't faze the two members of team DAMD but at this point began to grate at Brawnz though he tried to ignore it.

There was a relatively easy silence after that discussion, only made uneasy when Amethyst put her hand out in front of her partner so he ran into it when she stopped.

Everyone stopped and looked at the girl only to find her black cat ears twitching as she made clear she heard something.

Claws were out and swords were ready to be swung in an instant whilst Daff put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "What is it?" He asked.

Amethyst wasn't paying attention, her eyes scanning the walls of the room for a brief second. Until finally the thing that had gotten her attention got close enough to be heard by the others, a tiny squeak as a rat came jetting out from the cracks of the wall. Misty found herself feeling a chill run up her spine as she inadvertently twitched while Amethyst watched the tiny rodent with fixated eyes. It tried squeaking and turning around again but before it could the cat Faunus lunged forward and smashed her hand against the creature's tail. Gripping the tail between her pointer finger and thumb the purple haired Faunus pulled the rat out and held the squirming creature out in front of her. Without any hesitation, she flung the creature further down the path with enough force to make its survival unlikely.

"Okay I get that you're a cat and all, but that's just ridiculous!" Brawnz inquired as he sheathed the daggers in his claws realising the false alarm.

Daff couldn't stop himself from chuckling, holding his hand to his stomach trying desperately to stop the unstoppable fit of laughter at the whole thing. Though Misty was not laughing, indeed a shiver had gone through her that she shook off with a violent twist of her whole body. "Rats... Why did it have to be rats?" She mumbled to herself, shaking.

"You can keep your head while fighting Grimm, but a tiny rodent scares you?" the leader of BRNZ asked incredulously.

Misty gave another audible shiver but didn't answer as her cheeks became ever so tinted with red. "Let's just start looking for those Dust samples," she said sheepishly.

Daff just laughed and hit the ginger-haired girl on the shoulder saying, "Alright, let's go," He stifled his laughter as he pulled from his jacket one of the vials he had agreed to carry, "How much further do you think we need to go?"

Brawnz for his part shrugged as he said, "I don't know, Roy's the one with the knowledge of mine shafts."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mine along the second path, the other group was moving having long since gone past any of the other students.

"Roy," May was saying tentatively "Does Brawnz have the info on the mine to find the good samples you were talking about?"

"No... I thought one of Dia's teammates would know since she agreed to the idea." Roy responded innocently.

At hearing this Dia stopped in her tracks and slowly turned her head towards Roy, horror and concern mixed with uncertainty as she said, "Wait... Brawnz didn't know?" she asked.

"Uh... No," the boyresponded.

"For Oum's Sake!" Brawnz cursed. As the grorealisedzed that they were without a great idea how to get the sample they were tasked with retrieving.

The four Huntsman and Huntresses in training were standing around in a circle, having just finished asking who knew how to get the Dust out or even where to tap, or how to tap for that matter.

"Okay, well it must be in the cracks of the rocks, so maybe we can tap it with Dual Matrix, it's the sharpest edge we've got," Brawnz suggested gesturing to Misty.

Misty for her part could be seen with eyes opening in complete and utter shock and horror at the suggestion. "No! Dual Matrix is worth more than being used as a dirty mining tool. She's got way more class than that."

Daff just shook his head, "If Dual Matrix has so much class then she isn't that good of a weapon, weapons got to be sturdy and resilient, like my boy Solar Justice!" He said crossing his arms and grinning.

Misty rolled her eyes once and put a hand on her hip. "Don't you bad mouth my baby girl!" She said holding the Saber in question in her left hand brandishing it at him.

"I said nothing you didn't imply," Daff responded.

Amethyst in her lacking vocals just rolled her shoulders as she unsheathed the daggers of Midnight Gloom and holding them in an inverted grip she began tracing along the rocks trying to find any hint of something, not just stone.

While the others continued their bickering, the young Huntress in training found something deeper within the rocks that caught her attention, a bright blue coloured item that was maybe the size of Amethyst's finger nail. Between the stone, she reached her dagger in to try and pry the small crystal out from deep under the stone.

Pushing against the hilt of her dagger with the other hand, several presses in and the crystal was cracked free and sent spiralling along the ground.

The clangs of Dust crystal meeting stone caught the attention of the other three members of the group, prompting each of them to turn their heads to see their comrade picking up the small bright blue crystal and pocketing it in the vial she had.

"See, Amethyst knows what we're doing." Daff pointed out smiling.

"Whatever," Misty said, "I still say whoever sent us in here without pickaxes is an idiot."

Meanwhile, up at Shade academy, the blue haired professor Lazul stood over a chemistry lab with a large vial of bright blue dust in front of her.

Suddenly out of nowhere a violent sneeze erupted from her mouth causing the Ice dust to explode in a flurry of cold frozen water, covering her in frost.

"Oh good gracious." Professor Lazul said wiping the frost from her face and looking down at the mess she had made, "I've never been allergic to ice dust, I must start investigating this, perhaps the gravity dust interaction is toxic to humans!" She said excitement ebbing into her voice.

Back in the mine outside of Vacuo, a full hour had passed but finally, the four students had managed to get their hands on dust samples they needed and were just now heading back.

"So today was fun," Daff said hoping to lighten the now darkened mood, a mood darkened by the near sobbing Misty who was cradling Dual Matrix in her arms whispering to herself.

"Mommy won't ever do that again, I promise as soon as we get back we're going to the forge and getting you fixed up." She whispered soothingly to the weapon.

No one said anything until they made their way back to the impasse where they had split off from the other half of their group, finding the four in question waiting for them.

"Hey guys," Dia said before catching a glimpse of Misty and raising an eyebrow. "Dare I ask?"

"We had to use the weapons to chip into the stone, Misty didn't take it very well," Brawnz shrugged.

Dia blinked a few times before shrugging, "The minds of others are a mystery, now come on, Professor Sno is no doubt waiting for us." Dia said. "Plus I think I speak for everyone when I say this has got to be the most boring trip ever, what these dust samples have of worth is beyond me."

Back at Shade, Professor Sno was walking through the halls, just finishing with his second year Sparring Class, having let out five minutes prior. He found himself walking past the classroom of Professor Lazul. When he walked past, he heard a loud explosion followed by mad laughter coming from the other side of the door.

Sno did nothing but roll his eyes and continue walking. 'The people I work with.' he thought to himself, intent on getting a strong cup of coffee, he'd need it for the third and fourth years.

 **A/N - minor comedy chapter, a few cheap laughs, what can I say I had fun with this one.**

 **As always be sure to leave your thoughts in a review, I'd love to hear what you think, criticism is always appreciated**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	13. 1:9 Nighttime Cold

Chapter 9

The Nighttime Cold

"You know isn't it ironic you can get a 'cold' in this weather?" Misty chuckled lightly.

Team DAMD had just finished their final class of the day and had gotten back from dinner. Sitting in their dorms atop their given beds, the teammates were all in high spirits, with the exception of Daff who laid on his back clearly feeling under the weather, if the red nose and constant sniffles were any indication.

"You'd know, bet you had loads of colds," Daff said, grinning over at Misty before coughing once more into his sleeve. "Heh, apologies in advance if you gals can't sleep through this," he said.

Daff had been feeling a bit unwell all day, it had started as a minor sniffle and a cough in the morning but as the exhaustion of sparring class got to him it finally hit full force which was what led to his current situation laying on the bed with a body sore and unmoving with a stuffed sinus that made breathing through it impossible and set of muscles that stiffened and refused to function at their peak or anywhere close to it.

"Hey, it IS a weekend," Misty said, "we can sleep in so what's the problem?"

The blonde brawler gave off another low chuckle. "Thanks Mist," he said.

"You just get better." Misty said shrugging and smiling, "Now I'm going shooting with May, you guys... Do whatever I guess." And with that the duelist of team DAMD walked out.

Daff laid his head down against his pillow and rolled onto his side, his eyes finding themselves on the purple haired girl that was his partner. Amethyst was sitting on her own bed gazing out the window at the setting sun, her eyes glazed and lost in thought.

He had no idea what went on in his partner's head, even after the team had learned of her being an actual mute and not just anti-social... Okay no, she was a mute anti-social, they weren't at all mutually exclusive. Regardless ever since the team had learned of their friend's predicament the ex-smuggler had been trying to gauge what was going on in her head. Yet even three months into the school year and she was still an enigma.

"Night Amethyst," Daff said, pulling the red blankets over his body. Amethyst looked at him with a smile and waved her hand politely before turning her gaze back out the window.

The night was coming, and Amethyst was once again feeling its call, the call to run and embrace her freedom. It had become a weekly ritual for the girl, every Friday night, the others would find themselves tired and calling it early and Amethyst would use this to dive out the window and run. She never knew where, all she knew is that she was always back before the light returned to the sky.

Some might call it melodramatic; others would call it poetic, and some just plain weird. But when you've spent most of your free life with only the darkness protecting you, you begin to appreciate said darkness, and that's exactly what Amethyst did, as she ran and embraced the freedom she held in such high regard.

Alas she had to wait, the darkness was her shield and she didn't trust the rest of her team to share her haven, not yet anyway.

Thus the whip fighter of the team laid herself down on her bed, pulled out her notebook and began rereading her notes for Aura Control and Application of Dust. Hours passed and the only sound in the room was the occasional cough from the sleeping Daff and the flipping of a page.

Dia and Misty got back to the room and rolled into bed at roughly 10 o clock. Just in time for curfew, and both were plainly and obviously out like lights in 10 minutes. Just as routine would have it.

The time came, Amethyst, silent as ever, rolled out of bed, pulled Midnight Gloom out from under her bed and proceeded to head for the window.

Unfortunately for the huntress there was something out of routine on that night, and that was Daff's cold, one sniffle had woken him up at exactly the wrong time, in the perfect moment to see his partner dive out of the window.

"What the?!" He said shaking his head to make sure this wasn't a dream. One second later the horror hit him and despite all the soreness brought on by sparring class and his cold he was up on his feet in half a second with a racing heart. Running straight for the window he leant down and saw to his relief Amethyst had landed safely on an adjacent roof. He could hardly see her but what he did see was that she was running. That was the only way to describe it; he didn't see anything but the frantic movements that indicated speed.

"What's with all the racket?" Misty asked groggily. "Daff, you're sick, get back to bed." She said, reprimanding him the moment her head had turned to see him.

The young man turned his head and in the moonlight the duelist saw the pale face, showing nothing less than horror on his face. Or at least subsiding horror.

"I... Yeah... Sorry Mist, just... We have to talk to Amethyst." He said accentuating it with a cough.

"You need to get back to bed," Misty said raising her head up slightly. "We'll deal with this after some sleep, and when you don't sound like what comes out of the back of an Atlas factory."

Daff, too tired and scared to bother making any sarcastic quips, nodded and walked back to his bed, stepping down and rolling back into bed. Despite his fears knowing Amethyst at least knew what she was doing gave him enough comfort to get back to sleep, as it did with Misty. However, the third member of team DAMD was harder to dissuade to the land of the subconscious. Dia had refrained from commenting but she had heard all of it. Rolling over, she saw the empty bed of her fellow Faunus.

Determination was one thing Dia was able to put to use. When she set her mind to something, it would get done. Even if that something was looking like she was asleep but remaining awake, waiting for the return of her teammate.

Hours went by with Dia starring at the ceiling and Amethyst going about her, in her mind, never dull routine of parkouring around Vacuo and gazing at the shattered moon.

Finally Amethyst climbed back into her dorm room at Shade at one o clock. Silently to the point that Dia would have missed her entry, had she not been looking at the window.

"Nice night," Dia said in a voice that sounded nice but with an undeniable undertone of anger. Amethyst, despite being caught, just looked over to her team leader who was climbing out of bed so as to stand in front of her.

Amethyst nodded smiling sheepishly as she made a hand gesture, throwing her hands out towards the window. A sign language that Dia understood nothing of. That didn't dissuade her. Holding her Scroll in hand Dia held the device out. The holographic device had on it a keyboard and the meaning was clear. "Write it down, why did you leave?" the wolf asked, handing the Scroll to her teammate.

Misty and Daff had been roused from their sleep at this point but neither spoke, instead waiting for their mute teammate to give her answer.

The dark haired girl in question decided it was best not to lie, no need to tell them why but what she was doing was nothing to be concerned about. And thus she wrote on the scroll, "I was running, I didn't think it was a problem." When she was done she showed this message to the team leader.

"Where were you running?" Dia growled not unlike the wolf she had the tail of.

More frantic typing before a new message was shown, "I run to feel free, no destination in mind except back here."

Dia's lips pursed at this and her arms crossed a mix of anger and confusion. Confused anger was the only description of it, her teeth grit for just a second before she shook her head, "Alright," she said, "We'll talk about this in the morning with the other two, just, you gave Daff quite the scare you know that?"

Amethyst shook her head at that to say she didn't know that as she handed the scroll back to her team leader.

"Yeah you did, now go get to sleep, you leave again tonight and I'm reporting you to Rain." Dia threatened climbing back into her own bunk.

Amethyst nodded in understanding as she too climbed into her bed.

Several stories up, Vermelia Sang was sitting once more behind her computer going through the students that had expressed interest in going to Beacon for the Vytal Festival. Many teams had displayed a desire to go, a little over half in fact, which was why the woman in question was sitting up so late. As opposed to creating a ruckus around school for some challenge to quality Vermelia simply looked at the highest graded teams that showed interest and went down as far as she could. With no more than thirty-fivee teams able to go.

"Of course these students won't know what's going on." Vermelia thought to herself, "Even I don't know the intricacies of her plan."

Her plan. It was driving the calm and detached Huntress up the wall not knowing the threat, the details that Qrow had revealed to be recent uprising at Vale.

There was a part of Vermelia that wanted nothing else but to decline attending the Vytal Festival with this information of the threat looming in Vale. It really wouldn't be all that hard, considering the fact that Vacuo's city council held so little power. The Academy was the only real place of order in the entirety of the continent, giving her the only true authority in the kingdom. Yet at the same time, denying attending the Vytal Festival would both raise tensions within the kingdom and burn much-needed bridges with the other kingdoms.

'They won't face it alone.' Vermelia thought as she stamped another one of the papers in front of her with the green APPROVED stamp.

Continuing to read her way through the stack of sheets in front of her, the headmaster of Shade reached into her desk and pulled out a blank sheet of paper and began writing down duties that would have to be completed by her Deputy Headmaster while she was away.

 **A/N - Alright, the good thing is that I'm on time, the bad thing is that this chapter is both shorter than normal and a bit more on the meh side when it comes to things actually happening.**

 **I don't know, not a heck of a lot more that could be done, nothing else I can really do at Shade right now so next chapter we'll begin the trek to Beacon, which is where the story will really begin to pick up.**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	14. 1:10 Packing Up

Chapter 10

Packing up

"Okay, so you've been doing this every night we go to bed early since school started?" Misty asked incredulously.

All four members of team DAMD were currently sitting in their dorm, Dia and Misty sitting on one side with Amethyst and Daff sitting adjacent them on the bottom bunk, having all gotten up in time to talk about this.

The dark haired Faunus nodded looking at the other two girls with bright emerald eyes that spoke of nothing but confusion and slight irritation at the current situation.

"I don't see the problem," her partner had shrugged, "It's not interfering with school or anything," he said defensively.

Dia nodded, "Except for our Sunday morning training sessions which she's been unable to stick landings that she usually considers child's play," she said scowling.

The whip fighter raised a hand in front of herself indignantly raising a single finger, clearly saying 'One time!"

"It's been more than once so don't even," Dia responded, shaking her head. "You know half the time we go to bed early it's to get a head start on the training room."

There was a moment of silence, no one having any idea where to go from there, Amethyst clenching her fist, Dia's eyes hard and Misty and Daff looking away awkwardly.

'Why do they care? So what if I missed a handful of landings because you decided to set a team training session before the sun even rises.' The feline girl thought bitterly.

"I have an idea!" Daff said his frown replaced with a smile, "A timeframe every week where no one on the team has any authority over the goings on of the other members," he suggested with a wild and self-satisfied grin on his face.

"What do you mean exactly?" Misty asked, confusion laced with a bit of hopefulness that this whole scenario could be over and done with.

"It's simple, every week, between the last bell on Friday to noon the following Saturday we are all allowed to do our own thing, no team exercises or anything, sleep in, run at night... Go out to the tavern..." he proposed, hesitating at the last one, having figured out long ago that the other girls on his team weren't overly fond of alcohol. "It's like a break from each other, a dedicated time for Amethyst to do her running, Misty and Dia to get their solo training in or whatever else and me to sit down and find some good reading."

Another moment passed with the silent contemplation of this idea. It wasn't a bad one by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, even Dia in her rising diligence to get team training in, a commitment that was slowly but surely beginning to be endorsed by Misty due to the impending Vytal Festival. It just seemed like a great compromise, and yet there was just one thing that the team leader had to clarify about the idea.

"You read?" She asked Daff.

"I do," Daff said indignantly.

"Do comics really count as reading?" Misty asked.

The swordsman had to think about that for a second but before he could come up with an answer, he found both himself and the duelist laughing along with a few chuckles from their leader and a smile from the mute member of the team.

"Alright, from the end of class Friday to noon Saturday are free time, but if we're to do this, I expect us all to be ready for an afternoon training session.' Dia explained her condition with an all or nothing air about her and her statement was followed by nods of approval from the rest of the team. A compromise worth taking to heart.

"And now with our lovely team meeting... Who wants breakfast?" Misty asked, "Before we start packing."

Meanwhile, as the cafeteria began filling up with students, above them in the topmost room floor of the academy in the headmaster's office two figures sat across from the headmistress of Shade.

Angel Rain and Shad Sno sat in front of the desk, the sparring teacher leaning back whilst the field medicine teacher sitting up straight with her full attention on her superior.

"So, you want us to take over your role while you go and watch the little brats beat the crap out of each other in the tournament?" Professor Sno asked, a look on his face suggesting he was only a moment away from putting his feet on the headmaster's desk out of ego and spite.

"I will not just be watching the Tournament, Sno." Professor Sang returned leaning forward and putting her hands under her chin. "I will be investigating the threats that Qrow reported and I will be keeping the students safe." She responded with her trademark emotionless voice.

"Be that as it may, this still seems very unconstitutional, are you truly certain it's wise to go poking around in Vale, they take the rule of law much more seriously than Vacuo." Professor Rain said imploringly, the voice of reason and arguably the only rational and sane teacher in Shade, certainly living to her unofficial title.

"Rain, I am not asking for your whining, nor am I asking you to do anything. Right now I am telling you what I am doing and banking on the fact that I know you can't stand to allow the disorder that would reign over this academy should Sno be left in charge without someone holding his leash." The red-clad huntress said whilst the sparring teacher, rather than act indignant at the comment, simply rolled his eyes.

"Now I have some preparations to do, the qualified parties all know to get ready and I will have to follow suit. Dismissed." she finished, getting up and leaving the two professors to ponder the last moments with their boss.

"You know." Sno said, "I wonder how many favors I could get from Bones if I let him build that Rabbit fence in the greenhouses."

"Don't even think about it." Angel responded scathingly.

The hours passed, teams assembling all their belongings until midday when the light travelling team DAMD proved first finished packing.

The team opted to spend this time in an incredibly fruitful pursuit. Minding their own business and entertaining themselves in their dorm room.

"I can't wait until we get to Vale," Misty commented from her position, lying on her bunk bed with her scroll in front of her face.

"Right, you probably miss fighting for the cameras," Daff commented his head deep in his X-Ray and Vav comic

"Oh my, that's the smallest thing... hot showers after training, Daff, it's the best feeling of all time," Misty said with a tone of dreaminess in her voice, even though her eyes weren't lifting from her scroll.

Amethyst was lying on the top bunk with a book in hand, reading over the field medicine chapters that had yet to be assigned, a worthwhile waste of time in her mind considering first aid was the particular subject that she was a true novice at. Her eyes being the only part of her, she had been moving and drowning out the conversation her teammates had been partaking in only to be pulled when her name was called.

The feline girl rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself off the bunk so her head and upper chest were over the edge and she was looking at Misty who had called her.

"So Amethyst, you ready for the tournament?" The duelist asked.

Amethyst hesitated for a second, cameras spooked her to no end, they meant a face was put to memory and that was something she had no experience with. It was a part of her that went so far as to be the power of her soul, the ability to fade into the background. But regardless, the infectious smile of the Atlas born duelist got through the ice and got the assassin to grin and nod.

"Sweet," Misty said looking back to her scroll and unpausing the video she had been watching. Clearly a replay of one of her old fights, the girl in the video dueling another fighter with a lance. The moment Amethyst got a look at the opponents face however is the moment she felt her heart skip a beat and her grip on the bed to falter almost sending her crashing to the ground.

The face that met her was that of a dog Faunus, with a pair of floppy long ears out of his rustled wine red hair. Motion became a blur as she watched that fighter, a visage that made her think of her friend... "No, Mason is gone and there's nothing you can do about it Amethyst."

The assassin of the team must have been staring blankly for some time in her head because the next thing she heard was a voice of concern mixed with humor from her partner.

"Hey Amethyst, blood's going to start running to your head if you stay like that," Daff joked, but with a definite air of concern in his voice.

The girl in question shook herself from her stupor and pulled herself almost instantly back up onto her bunk shaking her head as if shaking the very thoughts out of her head, a motion that sadly didn't work entirely.

"I can send you the recording if you want Amethyst," Misty offered, "Just one of my recorded fights before coming here,"

"And you are watching it, why?" Dia asked with an unmistakable note of derision in her voice.

"To see how far my skills have progressed, there's no such thing as perfection when it comes to the art of dueling and it's always good to look back and reflect on the mistakes one makes." Misty responded to her partner's comment.

"You put too much thought into it, you hone your reflexes and instincts and let your body carry you to victory," Dia said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.

"And what happens when someone stronger or faster shows up?" Misty asked accusingly.

The words of the first pair of the team were drowned out by the other two. Daff and Amethyst looking at each other and sharing a silent nod, both agreeing it was not worth it to stop their teammate's discussion. It was like they were opposite sides of the same coin, the instinct and the technique.

In that moment a voice came over the intercom.

"All students attending the Vytal Festival, report to the auditorium with the items they wish to take with them." rang out the voice of Professor Sang.

"Well friends and comrades, our destiny of victory lies ahead of us," Misty said smiling as she pulled her suitcase and began walking in front of the others.

 _Destiny awaited them alright, but unbeknownst to the sweet little hare of Shade, it was a much darker fortune waiting to embrace them._

 **A/N - So... I'm still alive, and team DAMDs adventures are far from finished, my apologies. I took the break between arcs a chapter early.**

 **So I should be back on track, maybe a day or two extra to get back into the swing of things but for the most part my schedule should be back on track.**

 **Anyway I'll see you lads and lasses next week.**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


End file.
